


Haggard and Bright

by howsharry



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Corpses, Eggsy's a bit of a fuck up until now, Feelings of Debt, Fluff, Kingsman Department of Ammunition and Explosives, Kingsman Logistics Department, M/M, Merlin and Eggsy are bros, Much violence later on, Slow Burn, abusive background, gracious Harry, homelessAU, it is so on with slow burn, kind of, mention of skin divided from the body in chapter 7, non brit-picked, paranoid Merlin, spoiling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2018-05-11 12:07:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 33,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5626021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howsharry/pseuds/howsharry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A strange man takes Eggsy & Daisy home after Dean kicked them out, and he turns out to be alright.</p><p>A one-shot that got out of hand. </p><p>*update: the fic is not dead, I am in fact working on it again after a longer pause</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Eggsy’s shoulders ached from the heavy bags and the little girl violently trying to wiggle out of his arms didn’t make coordinating everything any easier.

“Shush, Dais’”, he murmured and readjusted the strap of the black sports back. Instead of calming down, his little sister started crying. And Eggsy knew why, he felt the same for the whole week. Daisy’s nerves were done, she was probably hungry again or the diaper didn’t smell too good. He had forgotten changing it while packing their important things. Mum surely wouldn’t have.

“Come on, girl”, Eggsy sighed and dropped the bags at the side of the pavement where he could lean against a wall. The street was too loud for her, she wasn’t used to the traffic and noises of the city. “Calm down, sweetie.” He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead while bopping her on his hip. 

She wouldn’t stop crying, she just added volume. And Eggsy tried his hardest to not smash his head against a the brick wall or close her mouth with his hand.

“I can’t do anythin’ now, Dais, we gotta move”, he whispered and tried to calm her again with his touch. He only grew more nervous when she backed away and closed her eyes in a violent scream. “Come on, just a mile or so, it’ll be over in a moment.” 

You can’t really reason with babies. Eggsy just grew more desperate in stopping her from throwing her arms around in distress. He was deep tired to his bones from the sleepless night of calling hospitals and facilities where they could spend some days and ordering their stuff in importance. 

Passerbies stared at him with concern, but luckily no one stopped to pity him. To avoid their gazes, Eggsy looked down at the pavement where all that was left of their lives was neatly folded and packed into two bags. 

“Please, just stop”, he murmured to the baby and looked up to the sky when his eyes began burning. He didn’t realize he was on the brink of tears until his jaw began to tremble. “Please”, he whispered into her hair, but she didn’t let him disturb her in her show.

“Just stop.” He sank down into squatting position, leaning his head against the red cold bricks. Tears fell down his cheeks as he propped his sister up on his knees and held her arms still so she wouldn’t hit him with her tiny hands. “Be quiet, we’re almost there.”

The first sob was violent and he couldn’t stop the rest from coming. His throat ached from not drinking the whole day and the dry air of the traffic in inner London. His stomach was too empty to feel like anything at all. “I can’t make it better now”, he sobbed and put a hand on his mouth to keep himself from making too much noise. 

Daisy screamed and screamed on while Eggsy buried his face in his hands and tried to escape it all for a moment and gather himself. He failed, as expected. 

The noise of something dropping next to him made him flinch back, cupping Daisy’s back protectively, and made him look up. A man crouched in front of him, brown hair slicked back and dressed sharply from head to toes, and frowned at him with concern. 

Eggsy was sorry for how the man’s hand was shook when he rested it on Eggsy’s trembling shoulder. Daisy looked at the man too, too surprised to carry on screaming. Instead she hiccuped, which put a small, sympathetic smile on the stranger’s face.

“Do you need help, young man?”, he asked very seriously and watched as Eggsy wiped his palms over his eyes - which only smeared the tears all over his face - and drew a deep, shuddering breath.

“A lift home?”, the man suggested and pulled his hand back, but not without giving Eggsy’s shoulders an affirmative squeeze. 

“We-we’re fine, thanks”, Eggsy stuttered but couldn’t gather the strength to push himself up just now.

The man was looking like he was about to say ‘But you’re not looking like it’, Eggsy judged from his intelligent and doubtful eyes, but the stranger just extended his hand and introduced himself with a warm voice.

“My name is Harry Hart.”

“Eggsy”, Eggsy responded and shook the older man’s even warmer hand. 

“This is your sister, I suppose”, Harry said and pointed his gaze at the baby girl in Eggsy’s lap. “Quite an organ she has, hasn’t she?” There was a little glint in his eyes, Eggsy couldn’t help but notice.

“t’s fine, but thanks for ye interest. We just had a bad day”, Eggsy struggled to bring out straight. 

“It’s barely lunchtime”, Harry answered neutrally. “I will give you a lift, where do you live?”

“It’s fine, man, we live ‘round the corner.”

Harry tilted his head. “There is no affordable housing in the area of two miles, unless you are a member of parliament or something similar.”

“Maybe my Mum is”, Eggsy retorted and it backfired badly. The words stung like fire in his chest.

The stranger didn’t believe him and therefore did not make the effort to look at least a tiny bit embarrassed. “I could call her for you, if you’re in trouble”, Harry suggested instead, searching for the right way to help with Eggsy’s unknown background. 

“T’s fine”, Eggsy answered again, sounding even more exhausted. Finally he pushed himself up and reached for the bags on the pavement. Harry mirrored his movement and came to stand next to him, topping Eggsy with almost a foot in height. 

“You won’t go home now, will you?”, Harry started again and Eggsy just grew more stressed.

“No”, he said shortly and carefully reached for the other bag so he wouldn’t loose balance. He was so fucking tired, everything ached and the snob was still nagging at him. 

“Eggsy”, the name sounded unfamiliar and plump from the strangers lips, but very careful, “your sister needs to get inside somewhere, now.”

Eggsy turned around abruptly and strap slipped off his shoulder into his elbow and pulled his arm down with it. He almost dropped Daisy and everything in their possession.

“I fucking know, okay?”, he huffed aggressively. “We’re on the way to a shelter, yeah? Is it that what ye were waiting for me to admit? Congrats.”

“You’re homeless”, Harry said, accompanied by a silent ‘oh’. 

Eggsy swallowed hard and grabbed his sister harder so she would not slip from him again. She began to scream then. The noise terror and the admission brought new tears to Eggsy’s eyes.

“Just shut up”, he told his sister while losing it again in the middle of the street, next to a judging stranger and in front of a hundred of people. He closed his eyes when the first tear rolled down his cheek again. 

The hand was back on his shoulder, gripping him by the crook of his neck where the muscle was most tense and stiff. Then it lifted the straps off his shoulders one by one and Eggsy went along, pulling his arms out of the slings. He felt too defeated and near to drowning to fight back for them, especially because the stranger’s touch made him feel a little bit less enstranged from the world.

“Have you eaten today?”, Harry asked near to his ear and Eggsy looked up to him. He had loaded himself with the two sports bags and taken up his own case that he had dropped when kneeling down before. “Has she eaten?”

“f course she has”, Eggsy snorted. “I wouldn’t starve her.”

“Of course not”, Harry answered and it sounded honest enough that Eggsy followed him when the man started walking off towards the main road. It was strange to see this business man push into a Burger Restaurant with two suspicious looking bags under his arms, but Eggsy was just happy to sit down somewhere quiet and with dimmed lights. Daisy calmed down immediately with the relaxed atmosphere of the room.

“I don’t hav’ money”, Eggsy said and Harry just shrugged. 

“Don’t worry. Eat what you want, I’ll pay the bill.”

He didn’t say that Eggsy looked undernourished at least. That’s what everyone did lately and it didn’t help at all. 

“How long are you two up today?”, Harry asked, after Eggsy ordered himself a burger, to keep the young man talking. 

Eggsy stared at the stranger for a moment. He was pretty nice, from an objective perspective. Eggsy was almost sorry for huffing at him. Harry got nice brown hair and matching whiskey-golden eyes with a pair of brows that looked like neat little caterpillars. His suit was rad to be honest, grey, probably bespoke and with two rows of buttons on the front. 

“On the road since 8”, Eggsy answered slowly. 

Harry looked at him with deep consideration and Eggsy knew, what question would follow. 

“And your parents?”

Eggsy threw a look down to Daisy who was sitting in a children’s stool and chewed on a toy. Then he looked back to Harry and shook his head. 

While bolting through the food, he pondered over his chances to get out of this without Harry calling the youth welfare service. Government would obviously think it best to split them up. Daisy into foster care and Eggsy, after revisiting his police reports, into a borstal. He could get going with the pathetic-and-overchallenged-teenager story and make Harry pay him another burger, or, after he had regathered himself, act like he could just stay at his aunts or friend now. He would have to make something up.

He felt better after eating the burger. More warm and safe, especially with Daisy being quiet and busied with her toys.

“Can I ask ye sumthin’?”, Eggsy said.

“Yes”, Harry answered carefully. No ‘of course’ followed.

“What makes you think it’s okay to pick an underage off the street and buy him food?”, Eggsy asked. He had to test the guy at least before he decided which way to act. 

Harry snorted and lifted an eyebrow.

“You’re not underage.”

“Oh, how do you know? You could make yourself suspicious to the authorities right know without having a clue”, Eggsy teased, because he couldn’t trust this man judging just from his looks. He could be crazy as fuck, everyone could. And no one knew. Eggsy didn’t even have a fucking cell phone right now.

Harry tilted his head again. “You may think you look like seventeen, but you have the eyes of an 80 year old. Besides, I’m part of these ‘authorities’ in some way.”

Yeah, probably working in some ministry, Eggsy thought. Or police chef. 

“Some people say ‘eyes of an old soul’ instead, sounds nicer”, Eggsy suggested sheepishly and played with the corner of a napkin.

They sat in silence for some minutes and followed the baby’s hands and the little plastic cars on the stool with their eyes. 

When Harry asked ‘And what do we do now?’, Eggsy was too tired to make any more cheeky remarks. He decided for the latter story and hoped Harry would just buy it after satisfying his conscience. 

“I’ve got a friend where I could stay for some nights, I suppose. Got to find a better job real quick so we can find a new flat.”

“What happened to your old one?”, Harry asked.

“We got kicked out”, Eggsy snorted, still feeling the hate towards his step dad. “Couldn’t afford the rent right now”, he lied.

Harry didn’t ask further on that topic, he just looked at the younger man with a polite, neutral expression.

“Who’s going to care for your sister then? When you’re away, hunting for jobs.”

Eggsy deadpanned. He had no fucking clue. It was a blatant lie, he had no fucking plan at all for the next few days. All he had was his bags, 20 quid change and the address of a homeless shelter across the city. 

“This is bullshit”, Harry finally sighed, obviously fed up with the story, and pulled put his wallet to throw two notes on the table. “You can’t manage this on your own. Nobody can.”

“My friends can help me...-”

“Oh, don’t bother to lie to me, Eggsy”, Harry snorted with a weak smile and stood up. “I can see through the facade.”

Eggsy raised Daisy out of her chair, wondering where they would be going now. 

“I can offer you to stay at my place”, Harry said while lifting the bags again without batting an eyelid. He was well fit for his age, Eggsy thought. “I live in a house that’s far too big for one person.”

Eggsy raised his chin in suspicion. “I don’t trust you”, he said with a shake of the head.

“You don’t trust anything or anyone”, Harry noted. “And that isn’t going to help you two, especially not when you want to stick together in the future.”

He headed to the door and Eggsy followed him hesitatingly. The guy could fucking look through him.

“You could be a psychopath, ya know”, he called after Harry.

“And you could rob my house while I sleep”, the older man said over his shoulder. “I’ll take the risk.”

Point taken, Eggsy thought ironically and followed him outside. In the end, he fucking liked this guy and his warm eyes, but he wasn’t going to be naive.

 

 

It would be a fair question to ask why exactly Harry Hart, codename Galahad, would let a civilian and a child stay at his house. Not that it was an particularly gross house, but it was full of secret stashs of weapons. He would have to put the SIG he had glued under the sink away. And he would have to lock the room under the stairs. Though, he could probably tell the boy he would keep a small child with a scar on the forehead in there and Eggsy would laugh at him but don’t question it further.

But how would he explain the small scratches in the antique would panel in the living room he couldn’t bring himself to replace? Ten scratches, but the guy had left the house with just four fingers after Percival had interrogated him probably. Well, interrogations were an exception. They could probably handle them alone at the HQ for some time now.

Eggsy looked at him in restrained bewilderment when they stopped at a crossing. He had gasped at the car, too, which was understandable when one drove a ‘fucking Bond-car’ as Eggsy had liked to put it. Or a Bentley Continental GT, like his car dealer would say.

“I have a free guest room”, Harry said into the space of the car, not exactly addressing the younger man. 

“You- by chance - don’t hav’ a crib, do ye?”, Eggsy replied. He seemed more comfortable with the idea of staying at Harry’s now, but he also had to get along with it if he didn’t want to sleep in a shelter.

“I’m sure we’ll rustle something up”, Harry said, plopping the ‘p’ deliciously. He tapped the wheel unconsciously and realized then that instead he was proper nervous. What a day. First Merlin had told him about the budget cuts, then Arthur had growled at him about the ruins he’d left in Sao Paulo last week and now he was taking a stranger and a baby to his house. A spy house. And he was a spy and probably off for a mission in New Mexico next week. 

It was certainly not a good idea, Harry thought and threw a look to the young man - a boy, basically - and his baby sister sleeping in his lap. But Eggsy had touched his soft side and since that happened rarely enough he made a soft decision and didn’t hand them over to the responsible ‘authorities’. He liked that word, or more, he was fascinated by how Eggsy had pronounced it with disgust and a bit of fear behind his confidence.

Eggsy’s world, as few as he knew about it, was broadly different from his. Most people’s was, but Harry had never seen anyone with the eyes of a spy outside of SIS or Kingsman HQ. Paranoia, hurt, trauma and strength. The same mixture that he had to face in the mirror every morning. 

He drove into the driveway and took the bags to the entrance where he fumbled with the keys long enough for Eggsy to make a cheeky remark again.

“Proper posh guy you are”, he said in a tone Harry - on other occasion - would have thought of as flirtatious. 

“I’m giving my best”, he replied lamely and held the door open for the siblings as they first entered the house. Harry went straight to the guest room to drop the bags off, wondering what they could have left from their former lives, and joined them back in the living room. 

Daisy was playing on the floor while Eggsy was standing in front of the bookshelves, tilting his head slightly so he could read the vertical titles. 

“Are you a reader?”

The young man turned around to spot if Harry was meaning it sarcastically, but found himself faced with a honestly interested and entirely innocent pair of brown eyes. 

“Books ain’t cheap, mate.”

Harry internally rolled his eyes as the address but didn’t comment.

“Then feel free to entertain yourself with those at any time. Same goes for the TV, but I must warn you I’m not connected to the cable TV. There is a fairly good amount of DVDs in the cupboard below you, though.”

“Ye got Wi-fi?”

“No”, Harry lied, because Merlin wouldn’t be all too happy if he let strangers into Kingsman’s secured internet connection. 

Eggsy nodded as if he would have suspected that and Harry restrained himself from feeling offended. He wasn’t that old, okay?

“I’ll show you the rest of the house, if you’d like.”

They began in the kitchen, which was a normal kitchen. Probably more knives than necessary but better paranoid than dead, Harry always said. Then hall was self-explanatory. Harry briefly considered to spare the bath for a good laugh later when Eggsy would stroll through the house alone, but he wasn’t going to be cruel to that poor boy today. 

“Don’t be shocked when you visit the loo, please”, he simply said, pointing at the downstairs bath and gestured Eggsy to follow him up the stairs.

“Your room is this one”, he explained and opened the first door right from the stairwell. It was tidy, small and looked expensive enough to match the rest of the house. “Opposite is the bath, next to the bath is my office. I would appreciate if you wouldn’t go in there, not without me.”

Eggsy nodded understandingly but with an unhealthy amount of interest, Harry found. He didn’t like locking doors inside his own house. “Last room is my bedroom. I’m staying at the office some nights, but I will tell you if so.”

“What’s your job, by the way?”, Eggsy asked as he followed him down the stairs again. Tailor wouldn’t work this time, Harry thought, not after hinting on the authorities. 

“I’m working in the Foreign and Commonwealth office right now”, he answered simply. That would explain the pay, the house, the books in multiple languages and maybe some weapons, if Eggsy found any before he had a chance to remove them. 

“Foreign Office? ‘s like MI6 and shit?”

“Not my division exactly”, Harry said and found himself smiling at the disguise he made up for himself just now. Merlin would kick his arse in the gym next time when he heard about that.

“What’s it what you do, then?”

They stopped in the living room where Eggsy lifted Daisy off the parquet. 

“Hard to explain and mostly classified, I’m afraid. Mostly translating and diplomacy, but I guess I’m not a ... ‘big fish’ in terms of influence on world matters.” 

Eggsy nodded and looked at him with newly found interest. Harry sighed internally, but was relieved by how the young man didn’t look that miserable anymore. 

Eggsy and Daisy made themselves homely in the guest room and soon they settled in for the night.

 

Harry stayed home the next day - there wasn’t much fuzz at HQ today - and used the early morning hours to hide most of the things that would make a young intelligent man suspicious of his life. The weapons were stored in his bedroom now and the few pictures he had hung up retreated to the cabinet of his office. His interior decoration wasn’t that much of a clue after that, mostly dead insects and portraits he liked. 

Eggsy greeted him with a shy smile when he carried Daisy down for breakfast. 

“I’m afraid I have no clue what babies eat”, Harry admitted after putting away his apron and sitting down at the laid table with the siblings. 

“No problem”, Eggsy replied and slouched to finger baby food out of his pocket while balancing Daisy on his lap. 

They ate in silence, as if they weren’t two complete strangers, both somehow lost in their way of life. 

“Ye know”, Eggsy began after breakfast, more quiet than before, “this is making me real uncomfortable.”

“I know. And I can’t say I’m used to having guest over at all. So this is...”, Harry hissed and rubbed his temple. 

“...slightly scary.”

“Yes.”

A small smile grew on Eggsy’s face before he looked down on his lap again and drew a deep breath.

“I’m not even sorry, you loaded us into your car”, he snorted.

“I’m very well aware of that”, Harry replied politely and brought himself to a small smile. 

They stared at each other for half a minute, lost for words before Harry - seeing himself in the position of decision making - proposed to go grocery shopping with them so everyone could at least find comfort in food. Eggsy snorted at that again, but it was kind of sympathetic.

“I need a crib”, Harry told Merlin over the phone after he had found a hiding place in the noodle aisle.

“A what?”, the handler asked.

“A crib.”

“Are you becoming a father?” Merlin sounded suspicious and simultaneously amused. Harry felt their love-hate-relationship grow with every second.

“I’m having guest over”, Harry explained half the truth. “And obviously I am not furnished for hosting a small child.”

Merlin snorted. “You are kidding me.”

“For god’s sake, Merlin, just get someone to bring it around to my house.”

“Since we’re an outfitter and not a secret intelligence organization...”, Merlin sighed and Harry heard the familiar tapping sound. “Is 4 in the afternoon okay?”

“I don’t know if she will be napping”, Harry considered.

“You truly care, do you? What did you bring home this time?”

“This time?! Merlin...”, Harry growled.

Merlin chuckled at the other end of the connection. “George will be there at 12, and I will come around tonight to see for myself.”

“Thank you, Merlin”, Harry gritted between his teeth but was grateful nonetheless. 

He had just ended the call, when Eggsy turned around the corner with Daisy in the cart.

“I’ve got everything for her now”, the lad told him with a smile.

Harry, not wanting to be suspected to be standing around useless in here, awkwardly grabbed a package of noodles and put it in the cart. “Yes, me too”, he said, and frowned at the cart. “Just baby food?”

“Yeah”, Eggsy shrugged obliviously. “Got it all.”

Harry hesitated and pursed his lips. “What about you?”

“Me?”

“Yes, what would you like to have?”

Eggsy stared at him for a sec and then - in a awkward movement similar to Harry’s - scratched the back of his neck and shook his head.

Harry growled impatiently. “I’m not going to spend time persuading you to get yourself something, Eggsy. Just...I don’t know you. I have no idea what you like and I can’t read it in your eyes.” His impatience hat turned into a chuckle when he saw how the young man nodded at him appeasingly.

“It’s okay”, Eggsy said and took a deep breath.

“I’m meaning it”, Harry said fondly and watched with pleasure how Eggsy straighted himself and turned the cart with a crooked smile.


	2. Chapter 2

George came exactly 5 minutes after Harry had stored the groceries in the cupboard and the fridge, and politely as always he knocked two times before pushing the door open with an internalized anger Harry could never comprehend and dragged a heavy-looking carton up the stairs.

“Hello to you, too, George”, Harry murmured while coming from the kitchen and looking after George with his arms akimbo. He threw a comforting look to Eggsy who was playing with Daisy on the living room. One of Harry’s less violent films ran in the background of their babbling. 

Eggsy was slowly rising from the floor and came towards Harry to observe George, too. 

“Who’s he?”, the young man murmured under his breath.

“He’s our man for everything, employee of the office”, Harry sighed. “Poor George. Take my advice and don’t talk to him unless it’s absolutely necessary”, he elaborated seriously, knowing what the man was capable of and why he wasn’t in a more powerful position within Kingsman.

“He’s bringing the crib, by the way”, Harry added.

“Looks massive, expecting us to stay?”, Eggsy cheeked and Harry was happy the young man hurried to follow George upstairs so he didn’t need to make his mind up about that now. They would certainly have to talk about this, but first he would have to talk to Merlin tonight. It was probably better to give the boy a few stress-free days to get his mind cleared off whatever was going on home. 

He was drawn from his train of thought by a faint whine, a tiny, screechy voice in the living room. ‘Skittish youth’, he heard his father’s voice that long become part of his own nag fondly in his head, ‘leaving him alone with the infant’. Or was it a toddler? Harry felt dangerously under-qualified.

By the time he set his feet carefully onto living-room ground, she was already sobbing, making a crunchy, unattractive face and had snot running down her nose. 

“I am not a professional”, Harry sighed, kneeling down next to the toddler (or infant?), and tried to figure out what to do. “But you’re definitely unhappy with the ongoing circumstances, am I right?”

She whined unhappily, just as she did with Eggsy yesterday. At loss for words, Harry fidgeted a clean handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped it over Daisy’s face. She didn’t like it, but at least she didn’t look as disgusting anymore. Is one allowed to call little children disgusting? Probably not. 

Glad that he was originally planning to make a small lunch for them all and still wore his apron over his expensive clothes, Harry gathered her up in her arms and raised them both into standing, cradling her head again his chest. 

She didn’t like it, she just began flailing around as much as she was able in this position. Harry tried to remember how Merlin had done this when he became an uncle. Considering that Merlin secretly only waited for his nephews to become an age where he could lead a decent conversation with them, he probably wasn’t the best source of advice though.

Following an idea, Harry let the little girl sit on his hip where he could hold Daisy securely with one arm. It seemed to work and after some rocking she eventually shut up and looked at him with still wet eyes as if he was going to say something.

“Weird creature”, Harry muttered and retreated with her to the kitchen, where he boiled some spaghetti and warmed up some tomato sauce from a can. 

Eggsy came down half an hour later just as the front door was it being shut with the volume of a gun shot, indicating that George was no longer in the building. Harry’s shoulders relaxed immediately. 

“Nice one, George”, he commented dryly.

“Why is tomato sauce all over her face?”, Eggsy asked frowningly from the door he was leaning in. Harry looked down to his hip where a dreamy girl applicated more sauce to her chubby face, and wasn’t entirely surprised. 

“I thought it was an indicator of happiness”, he lied, “Children on the telly seem to be much more comfortable when dirty.”

Eggsy snorted and took her from Harry to wipe her face clean. After sitting down for lunch first, Harry realized Daisy was actually capable of eating more than just mashed vegetables from little glasses, more so she had almost fully developed rows of sharps white teeth hidden behind her pink lips. 

“How old is she?”, Harry asked, hoping not to let his consideration shine through the words.

“Became 2 just last month”, Eggsy answered in the cautious tone Harry wanted to avoid. 

Even he, the bachelor, knew that children this age should be able to to more than babble and crawl. There wasn’t an obvious sign of disability in her face or her movements and she obviously seemed very happy as long as Eggsy’s around, but Harry couldn’t bring himself to believe that this child was as far as it should be. Observing her for a longer time she may have seemed slow he thought, but on the other hand it could be pure imagination. And he didn’t want to anger the young man with any more doubting questions for Eggsy sure knew what’s going on in Harry’s head. 

“How’s the crib?”, he hence asked.

“Stable”, Eggsy answered, his face relaxing. “I would sleep like a stone in there.”

“We can have George bring another one over for you”, Harry remarked and side-glanced at the young man. 

“Thanks, but I’d rather avoid him”, Eggsy hissed and cut some more spaghetti into little pieces for his sister. “He only talked to me about types of handguns and how much he liked to see the one’s you hide.”

Harry almost choked on his noodles. Eggsy just nodded knowingly and took a deep breath. “Building the crib went 200 times faster after that.”

“Shit”, Harry swore and took a sip of water, still deciding whether he should die of laughter or shame. Typical George, though. And a good reminder to check the house again for weaponry and also double lock the closet under the stair. 

“Listen, mate”, Eggsy began sheepishly. “Ya don’t have do this, alright?” While he hesitated to check for Harry’s reaction, the older man shook his head resolutely. 

“It’s all fine, Eggsy, no need to worry.”

“Yeah, right, but really...it might not be a big deal or you, but it’s certainly for me and Daisy.”

“Eggsy”, Harry sighed, a small smile curling on his lips. He even let his hand touch the younger man’s fleetingly to reassure him. “It is my pleasure to help you in times of need.”

He must have worded it wrong, or simply hit the wrong strings altogether with his reassurance, because Eggsy’s face turned inexplicably dark for a moment. 

“See”, he started, sounding almost as bitter as he did yesterday on the street, “I don’t want us to be your personal welfare mission, alright?” 

Harry considered where this constant need to defend himself came from. He didn’t know the young man for long, but it seemed to be a distinct trait of his character. And Harry was again to wonder, what Eggsy’s home must have been like if he was running from it and still held his mouth shut about what was going on. Instinctively, he searched for bruises on the small areas of exposed skin in Eggsy’s face and above his collar, but there was nothing but a mole. 

“If you don’t feel comfortable living on my expenses for a while”, Harry sighed again, heavier this time, “I would suggest you go and look for a job tomorrow. And a nanny, or daycare. As you like.”

“Meaning we’d stay here for a while, and split the rent”, Eggsy considered, his forehead in deep frown. 

Harry had to keep himself from chuckling. As if the boy could afford only half the rent in this part of town with only the underpaid job he was probably going to get. 

“That’s what I’m offering you. Although you needn’t pay me rent.”

If Eggsy’s look wasn’t doubtful, Harry didn’t know what it was. Well, yes, it sounded like a trap. A “please stay and let your baby sister with me while you work over the day” kind of trap. Harry could only guess what Eggsy saw in him: Almost certainly a lusty old man trying to take advantage of Eggsy’s situation. It was incredibly unfair that the poor lad didn’t exactly have another choice than stay with this rather dubious guy who picked him up from the streets in an spontaneous act of altruism. 

“I’d rather have a flat mate than a sugar daddy, bruv”, Eggsy said, surprisingly seemiing to get familiar with the idea and eventually accepting his future living situation. His anger disappeared, his face became neutral again as he finished feeding his sister. 

“Well”, Harry replied, having had enough of dirty innuendos at his cost for today, “then it’s all settled.”

 

Merlin came by at 8 that night and fortunately didn’t use his keys, leaving it to Harry to formally introduce him to Eggsy and Daisy as his friend and co-worker. He shoved Merlin up the stairs long before one of them could make a comment that would offend the other, though. Harry presumed that their personalities weren’t all too complimentary.

“So that’s your kid”, Merlin stated the obvious as he settled down in on of the brown leather arm chairs in Harry’s bureau. 

“Eggsy”, Harry nodded and sat down opposite from his friend. “And his sister Daisy.”

Merlin took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. The gesture had long become a ritual for switching from work-related thinking into other matters, matters that were less crucial to the world’s security. “What did the security check say?”, he asked then.

“I didn’t run a scan”, Harry admitted. “He’s just a kid, as you said.”

“Even if he wasn’t a grown-ass man - which he clearly is”, Merlin groaned in annoyance and disbelief. “Remember Iraq 2007? Children are not excused from world-wide terrorism.”

“Sometimes I’m afraid your getting paranoid”, Harry ts’d and stretched out for the bottle of whiskey on his desk. 

“Always been”, Merlin answered grimly, his eyes already fixed on the liquor. “You should still run the scan.”

“I know”, Harry murmured, because Merlin was always right. A shame, really. 

“Do you know his full name?”

“No. He’s calling himself ‘Eggsy’, just ‘Eggsy’.”

Merlin made an unhappy sound and tapped his foot impatiently on the parquet. “We should take a look in his passport when he’s asleep.”

“We will absolutely not”, Harry warned and held the glass of whiskey back he was about to hand to his friend. “We will not.”

Merlin growled again, but nodded, before he snatched the glass out of Harry’s fingers. 

It took them not too long to come to speak about the recent events at HQ, especially the upcoming wedding of James and Percy and the closed meeting with MI6 the week before. Merlin jokingly proposed for the pair to retire after their unification so that he could be start training new recruits.

“You can’t possibly love hating them so much”, Harry chuckled over the rim of his glass until his eyes were hot and hurting. Merlin looked dead-serious.

“It’s the only fun part of my job, Harry”, he huffed, “of course that isn’t comprehensible for a field agent.”

Harry shook his head. “You must miss blowing up things so much.” 

Merlin’s eyes narrowed to threatening slits. “You say one more word about explosives and I’ll transfer you to clean-ups.”

Harry suppressed another laughter behind his hands - he just couldn’t take Merlin serious when he was half-drunk - when a soft knock disturbed the mood.

The door was opened and Eggsy sticked his blonde head through the door, smiling insecurely. “Were going to bed”, he announced and Harry nodded his head graciously into the younger man’s direction, “just going to say good night.”

“A good night to you, too”, Merlin answered, raising his glass solemnly and throwing Eggsy a meaningful look. Harry shushed him too late but bid Eggsy a ‘sleep well’ nonetheless. Eggsy closed the door and they held their breaths to hear his careful footsteps stroll down the hall to the guest room.

Merlin raised a brow and looked down on his watch. “We’re going in at 2300”, he announced in the usual bossy handler-tone. “Find the intel, extract the passport, leave the room.”

“Or you could just go and ask him for his name”, Harry suggested, his tongue already sticking plumply to the roof of his mouth. 

Merlin threw him a disgusted look. “What kind of spy are you, Harry Hart?”

Almost an hour later they found themselves leaning against the guest room door, pressing their ears to the wood and deciding if entering was now safe. Harry half knew that it was stupid, half enjoyed the childish excitement Merlin sparked in him. 

“Don’t do it”, he shook his head defeatedly and threw Merlin a crooked smile although it didn’t do anything to the bald man. “Let him have his simple peace.”

“He’s a security threat”, Merlin murmured and shoved Harry out of the way before opening the door. 

Merlin had run through the recruitment circle, too, although two years after Harry, and miraculously didn’t get the job. The man who did went missing 8 months later in field duty, just after Merlin had accepted the job offer as an handler. There was still gossip about how the agent probably cleared out to La Palma and Harry knew exactly what the source of those rumors was, or rather who.

Due to his training for field action, Merlin still did a marvelous at sneaking around and extracting info in minimal amounts of time. While Harry stood in the door and blocked of the light flooding in, the handler crouched to the floor and fumbled with Eggsy’s discarded jeans for his ID. 

Harry had to suppress a yawn and let his eyes wander over to the crib near the window, the baby-toddler-thing soundly sleeping in it, and the young man in the bed two steps from him. Eggsy’s back was turned to him and glowed softly in the light flooding in from the hallway. There was a lot more of tiny moles on his back, perhaps just dark freckles, Harry couldn’t could tell in this light.

Merlin raised his hand with the ID card to gather Harry’s attention - and as a gesture of success, but who was Harry to deny him that - and returned to the door to read him the new information.

“Gary Unwin”, Merlin read quietly, “born September 6th 1991, residing in 119J Alexandra and Ainsworth Estates.”

He looked up to Harry, his forehead in deep wrinkles. “Unwin, rings a name, doesn’t it?”

Harry’s mouth suddenly felt very dry and he could barely keep himself from harrumphing. “No”, screamed his head, his brain felt dizzy, his hands tingled with shock. Weirdly stiff he shoved Merlin out of the way and carefully bent over the young man. Harry faintly remembered the glint of silver on the younger man’s collar, how his eyes were drawn away from the shimmer by the mole on his neck instead.

It can be, he thought in silent horror and leaned over the boy. His eyes followed the silver chain down to the pendant lying on the exposed chest. A pink ‘K’, sideways.

Harry was sober all of the sudden, stumbled backwards right into Merlin and shoved him through the door into the hallway.

“Lee Unwin”, is all he was able to say and suddenly the mist vanished from Merlin’s unusually peaceful face and he frowned deeply. 

“Fuck”, he muttered and looked down at the ID still in his hands.

“Fuck indeed”, Harry answered. 

 

Harry could feel the hangover crawl up his neck already when Merlin hacked Eggsy’s legal name into Harry’s computer and scanned the Kingsman servers for valuable data. Gary ‘Eggsy’ Unwin had a file. And it confirmed their assumptions.

Parents: Lee and Michelle Unwin.

“Tragedy confirmed”, Harry sighed and Merlin groaned affirmatively. 

“Take a look at his criminal record”, the handler said and opened another document attached to the file. “Doesn’t look like Michelle cared good for him after Lee was killed.”

“She was a mess, as everyone would be”, Harry replied, and Merlin clearly heard the sympathy in his voice.

“Please don’t feel guilty for yet another destiny that you had no control over”, he warned Harry coldly and scrolled further through the file that depicted Eggsy’s life. “You’re not even over the first one.”

Harry leaned back, trying to comprehend the relations. Obviously, there was another case of suffering on his behalf, another human life he had impaired, another innocent he had hurt. There had been ‘civilian casualties’ before in his job, on missions, of course, but those were under control and until this day they had always served a higher reason. They had been unavoidable.

Merlin rattled on about Eggsy’s history: “Gymnastics until he was ten, impressing results in national competitions. Completed school with top-marks...began training at the Navy’s, deserted training after three months for personal reasons.”

Lee Unwin’s death certainly would have indicated the opposite of this pattern, Harry would have believed. It seemed like a day dream, so very unrealisitc and out of the blue, to have Unwin Junior right down the hallway after all these years. Harry had failed and not only Lee had died and his wife’s heart had been broken, also the existence of her children had been seriously threatened by the events. Obviously the explanation for Eggsy’s state couldn’t be that easy, but Harry rationally believed that Lee’s death must have made a lot defining change to their lives. 

Merlin’s voice seemed to come from far away. “He would have made a good recruit, if he just finished with the Navy’s. A different kind, but still a good one to bully”, he joked dryly. 

Harry’s throat still felt dry. “Search for Michelle, what has happened to her”, he asked Merlin, expecting yet another tragedy. Lee’s depiction of her had always been the one of a fierce mother, a straightforward woman, but that also was a long time ago. What must have happened for young Eggsy’s life to take such a turn? 

Merlin typed her name into the file catalog.

He hesitated, before he spoke, his fingers slowly retreating from the keyboard. The excitement he had felt earlier that evening had vanished completely now.

“She’s dead”, he breathed and pursed his lips. “Leukemia, passed away last fall.”

Harry let his head drop between his shoulders as to not having to look into Merlin’s concerned eyes. He took a deep breath, blew the air out of his nostrils again. How could so much agony take place in just one family? Who allowed that? 

“You should get going”, Harry murmured and put a hand on Merlin’s shoulder without looking at him. “It’s getting late.”

Merlin looked at him doubtingly but didn’t utter a word of protest. He rose from his chair and Harry followed him into the hallway where he waited until Merlin had returned the ID into Eggsy’s jeans. They both walked down the stairs silently and stopped at the front door. 

“Can you believe the fucking universe?”, Merlin murmured. “What a shitload of coincidences. I mean, it’s been what? 20 years? What’s the probability that you would meet him on the street, that you would even come to speak again.”

“He always had the medal”, Harry answered, “there has always been a probability.”

Merlin shook his head, clearly dizzy and confused. “He’s kept it, that’s what irritates me the most.”

“That’s what irritates you the most?”, Harry huffed and raised a brow at his friend. “I have literally no idea how to talk to him tomorrow. ‘Hey, and by the way, your father gave his life and the luck of his family for my shitty existence?’.”

“Hey”, Merlin interrupted and shook his head disapprovingly. “Not this again.”

“You know it’s right”, Harry replied, “Eggsy is the living proof. You should have seen him yesterday, clinging to the last bit of his dignity in the middle of public.”

Merlin sighed and drew Harry in a surprisingly gentle hug. “You’re over-dramaticizing, Harry. Ask the lad for his name tomorrow, tell him you knew his father, bla bla bla, it’ll be okay.”

“Your head is full of shit”, Harry answered fondly and rubbed his hand over the baldness of Merlin’s skull, for which he earned an nudge in the ribs. 

Merlin went home and Harry went to bed after shutting down his computer. His thoughts didn’t stop revolving around the fate of the Unwins for some time. Especially, that he was surprised by Eggsy’s well-being in his childhood and teen years and hence that he had expected everything to go differently. Had he expected Eggsy to fail somehow? With a history like this?

And until this evening he had - always - thought about the medal as enough of an repayment and Michelle’s hatred towards him as a indicator of how few other things he could have done, to help them.

Well, Michelle was dead now, and Eggsy and his baby sister slept two rooms down the hallway.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here we go again. exams next months keep my head spinning, so please don't waste your hopes on regular updates.

When Eggsy came down with Daisy the next morning, Harry was already pondering over a cup of tea. He leaned against the kitchen counter, his hair disheveled by a hand running through it multiple times, although he was not the picture of a man with a hangover and a bad night of sleep was more than likely.

“Good mornin’, Harry”, Eggsy greeted and tried not to pitch his voice too high in case the older man sported a headache. Harry raised his head with less grace than normally and revealed a frown which eased at the sight of the siblings. He responded with a muffled word and straightened his posture.

“English or continental breakfast?”, he asked then and Eggsy smiled at him brightly.

After feeding Daisy mushed carrots with more or less success (Harry all the while made sympathizing noises and crunched his nose at the sight of near-to-tears-Daisy), Eggsy hurriedly finished his own breakfast and helped Harry put the dishes in the dishwasher. As they stood next to each other and washed their hands in the sink afterwards, Eggsy gathered a better look at Harry’s face. He was frowning again and looked tense.

“Everything alright?”, Eggsy asked. Harry paused drying his hands in a towel, sighed, and then proceeded to give the towel to Eggsy. He watched Eggsy drying his hands for a while, on arm steadying his weight on the counter, the other hand in the pocket of his red bath robe.

“We need to talk”, Harry said with enough ease that it didn’t sound like he was kicking them out. It was clearly a serious matter, though, as Eggsy gathered from the look the older man gave him over the rim of his glasses.

“Of course”, Eggsy answered hastily and put the towel away. “I’ll put Daisy in the crib with her toys and then we can talk?”

Harry nodded. “And I’ll take a quick shower.” He smiled reassuringly, but didn’t make it through and fell back into a bleak expression all to soon.

After the older man had locked himself up in the bathroom, Eggsy cleaned Daisy and took her up into their room. She seemed not as tired as he’d liked her to be, but could distract herself enough to get along alone for half an hour, Eggsy hoped. 

Back down in the sitting room, Eggsy waited in front of the book shelves and scanned the titles like he did on the first day. Harry had to be a real brain if he actually read some of them, most were in languages Eggsy couldn’t even identify. Curiously, and because it looked like there could be a hidden door swinging open if he just pulled the right lever, Eggsy took a closer look but only found a second row of books behind the one displayed in front. “Nerd”, he muttered under his breath.

“Found anything interesting yet?”, Harry startled Eggsy from behind his back where he was standing just 5 foot away. That guy could sneak right proper. 

“I’ll need to learn Russian first, I’m afraid”, Eggsy answered with a small smile and turned around to his host. Harry was dressed to the nines again - no sign of maybe-maybe-not-hungover-Harry left - and was sporting a grey pinstripe suit with a red tie and a silvery pocket square. “Hey, you were fast!”

Harry nodded and extended his hand to the sofa’s direction. “As I said, I’d like to have a word. Don’t worry”, he added, as he recognized the slightly haunted look on the younger man’s face.

They sat down and Harry again took his time to gather the words. It was an strangely uncomfortable silence, as it would be with any people that had known each other for a few days. Eggsy felt the dust settle on the furniture, the clock’s ticking vibrate through the air. The room became very sharp, and Eggsy’s senses became hypersensitive in expectation of unknown news.

Eventually, Harry pinched the bridge of his nose and took his glasses away to fold and tuck them into his pocket. “Yesterday night I noticed the medal you are wearing”, Harry started with a deep sigh. He looked up and watched Eggsy’s expression carefully before his eyes gazed over the skin under the younger man’s collar. 

“Right”, Eggsy nodded, not realizing what Harry was about to say. “’s from my dad.”

“Well, not exactly”, Harry disagreed. His eyes wandered upwards again until they found Eggsy’s and looked at him with an innocently owlish look. Big, brown eyes filled with a lot of heaviness. “I am the man who gave you that medal.”

He stopped again and took a deep breath. The situation was clearly more uncomfortable for him than it was for Eggsy, who was just starting to realize the extend of this disaster.

“You?”, the young man asked hesitatingly.

“Yes, me. You must have been 5 or 4, a very small boy”, Harry smiled hurriedly, and rather insecurely. “I was at your parent’s house to tell your mother of Lee’s tragic involvement in one of our operations which turned out to be lethal for him.”

Eggsy knew that, and differently to what Harry had presumed the boy nodded rationally. Eggsy couldn’t really remember mourning his father’s death. Either he had been too young, or perhaps his memory just suppressed the grief he felt at the time. 

Harry couldn’t know that though, and probably thought of himself walking on thin ice, so Eggsy gave him reassuring nod. With great effort he could remember a man in a suit, his mother crying, but not much more. It could just as well be his imagination trying to make sense of this because Harry’s face certainly hadn’t looked familiar to him at any point of time.

“He worked for ya, yeah?”, Eggsy asked. His hand had unconsciously slipped up to his collar, twirling the links of the chain between his fingertips. 

Harry nodded gracefully. “He was a trainee by the time he was killed in action.”

“That’s a crazy coincidence then. I mean, you - me & Dais, meeting on the street after twenty years.”

“I thought so myself.”

“That’s why ya wanted to talk?”

Harry took a deep, painful breath. “See, Eggsy, it’s not just that. I gave you that medal with a purpose. There’s a number on the backside and you or your mother could have called if you needed anything.”

Eggsy looked at him incredulously, eyes widening in silent horror. Harry’s heart became an aching lump. “You serious?”

“Very serious. I gather you forgot and your mother didn’t tell you about it”, Harry assumed. There was a stale taste in his mouth now. His pity effort on repaying the Unwins obviously hadn’t even been taken seriously. 

“Bruv, me mum always said this was bullshit. That it’s just a stupid medal for dad’s merits or somewhat. She never talked about any payback.”

Eggsy leaned back on the sofa, trying to connect the dots with care while Harry shook his head slowly. 

“Now you tell me it’s would have been that easy when money went short again?”, the younger man groaned.

“It wasn’t about money per se. I offered you both my personal assistance in times of need, that includes a lot more than financial aid, especially in the field your father and I worked.” Harry carefully observed Eggsy, looking for any sign of rage or grief, but there was only disbelief written on the younger man’s face. 

“I don’t understand”, Eggsy breathed, running his hand over his face. “You mean I wore this thing the last 20 years and all the while you were counting the days? This is bullshit....”

The younger man’s gaze spaced out for a moment and Harry said nothing, letting the young man sort the thing out in his head. Eventually, Eggsy turned around to him again with a sharp movement, a frown building between his eyebrows.

“Why would you do this? A personal favour and obviously you’re not speaking of getting my mum a nice vacation or sumthing.”

“Your father died because of me”, Harry blurted out, sharp and with part of the disgust he felt for himself. “Sorry, I meant to tell you in a more considerate way...I just...”, he sighed again and started again. “Your father was a very brave man, Eggsy. I can’t tell you any details as it was a classified mission, but as far as it goes I made a tremendous mistake and he gave his life to save the remaining three of us.”

Harry looked up to Eggsy shortly and then back to the folded hands in his lap. He could just pretend it didn’t hurt, like he would do on a mission, but Eggsy deserved at least part of the truth about the man his father had sacrificed himself for and because of. Just for once it would be good to let his own feelings on that day display, at least for a moment.

“That was the most selfless thing I’ve ever seen, but he was the man of us who would have deserved to live longer. I’m deeply sorry for this, Eggsy.”

The young lad looked at him for a while, biting his lip and wrinkling his forehead, and eventually shrugged. 

“It’s okay, bruv”, he just said. And Harry fell out of his mind.

“What?”

“I said it’s okay. I mean, yeah, life’s a bitch. But what can you do? If my dad thought it was a good idea to...how did he die though? Fuck that classified shit.”

Harry threw his considerations on security away at the helpless look of the boy.   
“He threw himself in front of a grenade”, he answered dryly, almost humored by the casual tone of voice Eggsy used.

“Woah, really? Fuck”, Eggsy realized and gulped down a lump in his throat. “Still, what I wanted to say is”, he carried on less agitated than before, “that it was his decision, alright? You look like that’s been getting under your skin for ages now, but if he decided to save you all in exchange for leaving his family alone, that’s his thing.”

There was still a lot of bitterness in his voice and a slight tremor, too. The result of a mind in search for a logical explanation fighting against the horrors of terrible childhood memories that Harry definitely knew the young man had had. 

“I wish you’ would have known your father”, Harry said quietly and presented Eggsy with a small but heart-felt smile. “But I more wish he’d known you.”

I wish I had known you earlier, Eggsy thought and wiped the thought away, because it sounded wrong. He swallowed again and wiped a hand quickly over his eyes. “That’s it then, yes?”

Harry shook his head. “No, not really...I-”, he stopped and hesitated to speak about Michelle. He couldn’t tell Eggsy that he knew his mother was deceased now out of the blue, could he? No, under no circumstances. Harry watched Eggsy’s slightly crunched face, the dark rings under his eyes, the puffy redness of his eye-balls and his shrunken posture. No, it wasn’t the time. And who knew, maybe the boy would tell him on his own and in his own time.

“You?”

“I just wanted to say”, Harry saved the sentence, “that the favour’s extend is as great as you wish it to be, Eggsy. Meaning that you’re not causing any bother here but are very much welcome as long as you want to be.”

Eggsy nodded at the reassuring words and bit his lip again until it bled. 

“I have one question”, he said, sounding very serious and more composed again. He looked up to Harry’s eyes and the older man knew that Unwin’s son would detect any lie from him in an instant. “Is it safe here?”

Harry looked at him for a long time, considering his answer and probably sensing how much Eggsy already assumed about him. 

Eggsy knew that something was odd about this man who drove a proper spy car and sneaked on him like a predator, had books in multiple languages - most of the english ones about wars and poetry -, had a terrifying best friend and a history with his father in the ‘military’. Foreign office his ass, Harry Hart was everything but he definitely wasn’t normal. 

“I trust you”, Eggsy said into the silence when Harry wouldn’t answer. “My dad gave his life for you.” And our happiness, too, Eggsy completed in his head. “But I don’t trust whatever it is you an me dad were doing.”

Harry swallowed heavily, before a composed, professional layer covered his expression. “This is a safe house”, Harry answered sternly. “There will be no danger for you and your sister.”

“Alright”, Eggsy said. Daisy’s screaming broke through the short silence. “My call.”

“Alright”, Harry nodded and waited for Eggsy to disappear upstairs before he went into the kitchen to fill himself a glass of water. 

Nothing gives you a headache like slowly being unmasked.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well well well  
> The response to my work has been - for my standards, mind you - enormously encouraging and effectively keeps me from learning for my exam tomorrow. Here's a new chapter, you cuties. Another 4000 words, just for you.  
> I hope you like where the story is going just as much as me.  
> Wish me luck on 6 hours of history exam slash torture tomorrow, I'll sleep very good tonight with all of your kind words at heart. 
> 
> P.S. I'll take time tomorrow night to answer to your lovely comments individually, but now it's far too late.
> 
> Oh, and I just updated the tags. But it's nothing you don't already know.

Eggsy had taken Daisy to bed, one and a half weeks after they had moved in with Harry, and joined the older man in front of the fireplace in his office. Harry had invited him inside the night before for the first time, and they had sat in comfortable silence for a bit. Harry found it surprisingly easy to be with the young man, who was jumpy and energized during the day and calm, sometimes sad-looking at night. Considering that they shared a bit of their personal history, the easiness wasn’t that surprising at all, Harry thought to himself. 

“Harry?”, Eggsy asked from where he was standing at the open fireplace and staring into the flames. Harry answered with a small humming sound. “What’s in the room under the stairs?”

“The rest of my stuffed former pets. Did I tell you of the alpacas?”, he answered casually.

Eggsy grinned. “Like seriously, Harry.”

Harry drew a big breath. “I’m going to tell you later. I want to talk to you about something else first.”

Eggsy went pale insteadly from Harry’s serious tone of voice.

“Shit, did I do something? Oh fuck, I’m sorry I broke that cup, I really am.”

Harry snorted. “I’m offended that you think I wouldn’t have noticed that earlier. And even more that I would give a shit about it.” He raised a brow and a smile at Eggsy.

The boy looked relieved and took a seat opposite from Harry in one of the chairs. 

“It’s more about what you’re going to do from now on. You obviously won’t stay here forever. Which doesn’t mean you can’t but a gather a young man would want to live in his own house at some point, a I right?”

“Yeah, I know, I should find a Job. But it’s hard, ya know? Most people won’t take me: no qualifications on a 24 year old doesn’t look good.”

“You’re 24?”, Harry frowned, of course knowing that fact but didn’t want Eggsy to feel pried on. The recruitment process demanded the involved to be at least 25 years of age, though. Arthur would hate him even more for breaking yet another rule.

“Yeah, that’s a problem?”

“No, not at all. See, I think you are a man of great potential, Eggsy.” Harry enjoyed how Eggsy grew simultaneously red and taken back by those few kind words he wasn’t used to and that Harry was more than happy to spare. “You can make better than a student job, and you need to make better than that if you want to provide for Daisy.”

Eggsy didn’t answer, he just looked at Harry with a growing frown.

“Why did you end your training at the marines?”

“Did you fucking check my files?”, Eggsy snapped at him in surprise. Harry grunted. Lying was of no use anymore, the young man could see easily through his facade. 

“Why did you quit?”, he asked sternly. 

Eggsy leaned back and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Because me mum didn’t like it for obvious reasons, bruv.”

“Yes, I’m sorry. Did you like the training, though?”

“Are ya asking me to get into ya fucking business?”

Harry shrugged. “Just scanning your interests.”

“Well, me mum’s dead now so there’s literally not much speaking against it. Especially not with connections like you.”

Harry shivered at how bitter the boy’s voice had grown over telling him of his mother’s death like reading a nasty newspaper article. He tried to remember shortly how he had felt when his mother had passed away, but he gathered not much of an emotion. Instead, he focused on Eggsy again, who looked older now, mature and able to make decisions. 

“I’m sorry about that, too.”

“You knew it, didn’t ya?”

“I assumed as much”, Harry said and presented Eggsy with a small, reserved smile. Silence spread between them for a moment, before Eggsy sighed deeply and walked over to the second armchair to let himself fall into it heavily. Eggsy gnawed on his lips while Harry stretched to push a log farther into the flames. 

“You were about to say sumthing about your business”, the young man reminded him then.

“I wasn’t”, Harry huffed, feeling Eggsy’s interested glaze prickle on his skin. “You’re just so goddamn nosy.”

“Curiosity killed the cat”, Eggsy smirked shorty, “but satisfaction brought it back. Come on, Haz, I just gave you another piece of my tragic family history now tell me of all the secret stuff in your cupboard.”

Harry scolded the young man with a warm look and a soft shake of his head.

“You are a pain in the ass, if you want to be. But maybe today is truly the time to tell you that I am indeed not working for the Foreign Office, but for a non-governmental Secret Intelligence Service called ‘Kingsman’.”

So it’s out, Harry sighed internally. 

Eggsy’s mouth lifted at the edges, leaving him with a smug smile. Harry obviously just confirmed some of his theories. “What’s the difference?”, he asked. 

A smile grew on Harry’s face. “I would say we can take a lot more liberties, we are more independent from the change in politics and economy.”

“So yar a fucking spy, yeah?” Eggsy’s eyes seemed to glow in the shadows the fire threw at them.

Harry nodded. 

“That explains the weapon vault under the stairs”, Eggsy grinned and raised a cheeky brow. 

“You picked the lock”, Harry sighed.

“Sure I did. The knife in the headboard of my bed was more of a shock, though.”

“I think you would make yourself marvelously at Kingsman , if you’d want to try.”

“Hella”, Eggsy answered and gulped his whiskey down in one go. “You made it easy for me, though. Shoulder holster on the coat hanger would make anyone suspicious.”

Harry considered Eggsy again, his self-confident smile and his positively glowing face. It took him a bit off-guard how easily the young man accommodated to the news, to everything that had happened the last few weeks. 

“What about Merlin?”, Eggsy asked.

“What about him?”

“He’s a spy, too, isn’t he.”

Harry grinned and looked down into his glass. “Nah, more of a desk-warmer really.”

“Meaning you would do all the butt-kicking?”

Harry frowned and looked up again. Eggsy was curious without question, but the teasing tone in his voice was new. Of course, as one would grow more familiar with another person that would be expected, but paired with the open smile and his brightened eyes, Harry got a different impression. He considered his next words with care: “I have my fair share of paper work, I assure you.”

Eggsy nodded and took another deep look into the fire to avoid Harry’s deliberately piercing gaze. 

It had been some time, Harry thought and lowered his eyes to his hands which were folded across his lap, since someone had been flirting with him. Eggsy was excited, interested, yes, but that tone of voice...

Harry chuckled lightly and took a deep breath. He lifted his head again and tilted it, his chest getting tight under his shirt. Hopefully it wouldn’t occur again. There was no use, was there?

 

 

“You told him everything”, Merlin sighed heavily, let himself fall back in his chair and immediately began massaging the bridge of his nose. 

Harry flicked his tongue in response and leaned down further on the leathery backrest he was leaning on. He waited a bit for Merlin to get used to the thought, before he tilted his face in his friend’s direction, his raised brows owlishly waiting for an answer.

“Ugh, don’t look at me like that”, Merlin huffed and pushed himself away from the desk he was sitting at.

“Like what?”

“Like you don’t feel the devil’s horns on your forehead.”

Harry swiped across his impeccable hair with a hand and looked at it suspiciously afterwards, at which Merlin looked even grumpier.

“I’m serious though”, Harry said, smiling at familiar sound of tumblers being taken from their shelf. Merlin grunted again and ripped the cork of an already begun bottle of cognac with his teeth. He poured himself a finger and put the bottle and the second glass on the desk between them. 

“What did you have in mind?”, the Scot asked between gritted teeth and Harry knew he had won. In premature celebration he poured himself a finger and finally set down opposite to his friend. 

“Logistics.”

Merlin made a suffering sound. “Seriously, Harry? That’s were we put the people with too much body fat and an university degree.”

“You are shamelessly direct today, my friend”, Harry chuckled and took a gracious sip. 

“Why logistics?”

“It’s not without charm”, Harry answered defensively. “And their mortality rate is among the smallest.”

Merlin huffed. “There is nothing to be found in logistics but paperwork and the wrath of the agents sent to the wrong destination.”

They both shared a chuckle, before Merlin’s expression turned serious again.

“You won’t even consider him for a field agent?”

Harry met his eyes and raised a brow. “Of course I did. That boy in a suit, Merlin? All good shall prevail.”

“The death rates among new recruits have sunken considerably in the last twenty years”, Merlin reminded him. 

Harry sighed. “I know. But I decided I wont push him into any direction, not after what happened to Lee.”

Merlin nodded but didn’t react outspokenly.

“Perhaps he can make up for education in experience when he works himself through some of the divisions. I leave the decision to him, entirely”, Harry rambled on.

Another moment of silence spread between them before Merlin turned around to him slowly from where his gaze had drifted away to the window. He looked Harry straight in the eye, his forehead in a deep frown. “I know you, Harry, I know you will do no such thing. Not when the boy has grown dear to you.”

Harry tensed up at the dooming voice with which Merlin told him what he perceived as the inevitable truth. “What makes you think he will grow dear to me?”, he huffed.

“You have a weak spot for creatures like him”, Merlin smiled sadly. 

Harry considered his friend with a stern face. He didn’t, not in the least. Or did he? He quickly evaluated the life choices he made over the past weeks and came to the conclusion that everything he would deny was more grist to Merlin’s mill.

“I may”, he answered vaguely.

“Well well”, Merlin sighed, having confirmed his assumptions. “I’ll make a appointment for Logistics next week, if that’s okay? Hopefully he just stay’s there. It would be wasted potential, but I’ve never known someone from logistics who got hurt beyond breaking a toe on a file cabinet.”

“You forgot ‘92 when Gawain blew up the whole department”, Harry said dryly. Having Merlin playing along with his idea was a great relief and a good assistance, though, even if the price was being mocked at.

“Casualties”, Merlin breathed tensely and went back to his tablet, shushing Harry out with the impatient wink of his hand.

 

 

Harry knew he had control issues, but he couldn’t help but organize a place in a therapeutic children group for Daisy despite Eggsy being insistent that there was nothing wrong with his sister. It was quite easy to sell it to the young man as a normal nursery, for Eggsy had apparently no idea what these things looked like from the inside.

“Ah, you must be Mr. Hart and Mr. Unwin”, the facilitatingly ordinary-looking woman greeted them as they took a first step into the group room of the facility. Harry liked it immediately. The walls were beige, grouped with soothing tones of orange and red, which he had noted in conversation with Eggsy but the young man didn’t seem to understand the concept of room colouring yet. He did react to the various selections of toys and plushies, though, with enormous excitement. Daisy reacted in a similar way that made it difficult for Harry to steady her on his hip.

Harry now changed his grip on her to shake the woman’s hand. Holding Daisy was still kind of a thrill for him and he was more than surprised that Eggsy didn’t rip her away from his arms after he’d taken her out of the car seat, for all he knew he must be doing it terribly wrong all the time. Handling Daisy was a delicate art to Harry. Normally, it wasn’t that hard for him to evaluate his own strength but having a fragile looking baby in his hands made him question every single move multiple times. It didn’t change over time, even after Eggsy demonstrated her ‘monkey’s grip’ to him, which was simultaneously the first time Harry had scolded the boy with all seriousness and no mercy.

“Yes, which makes you Ms. Connor, if am not mistaken”, he answered while she turned around to offer her hand to Eggsy. “We have talked on the phone.”

He gave Eggsy a reassuring smile and she presented them both with an over-enthusiastic grin, which was probably common for nurses. Balancing Daisy on his hip - and hoping she wouldn’t begin to chew on his work-suit again - Harry moved to follow Ms. Connor, guiding Eggsy with a hand on his lower back.

“Don’t know if I like this, bruv”, Eggsy murmured so she couldn’t hear them.

“A few seconds ago you were delighted by the toys”, Harry hummed dryly.

“Yes, but ain’t that all...ya know, a bit posh?”

Harry chuckled, not trying to let his nervousness shine through. Eggsy was supposed to like this. It was not a matter of money but a matter of quality and qualification of the caregivers. 

“You’re afraid she’ll be spoiled?”

“I’m afraid she’ll be speaking like you in a month”, Eggsy huffed, but smiled already. “Besides you already spoil her enough, Haz.”

“That’s a shameless lie”, Harry defended himself and looked around the room they were now entering. It was the bedroom, filled with small cribs and slightly bigger beds with blue sheets. 

“You like it, don’t you, Daisy?”, Harry asked the little girl in his arms. She frowned, smiled again and resumed gnawing on his pocket square. 

“Undecided”, he stated and flicked his tongue before turning to Eggsy and Ms. Connor again. 

Eggsy had his arms crossed against his chest, considering his surroundings suspiciously. 

“I didn’t expect this to be as much of a fuzz as it is now”, Harry sighed and regarded the younger man with a questioning look. “Excuse us, please”, he told the caregiver calmly and took Eggsy away two steps so they could talk privately, “this establishment is among the top of the list.”

“What fucking list?”, Eggsy asked sharply but muffled. “Some list you found on the internet?”

Harry took a good effort not to sound offended. “No, well, yes. But that isn’t the point-” Daisy made an unhappy sound and Harry hurried to hand her over to Eggsy, who took her with incomparable skill. 

When the younger man looked up again, there was honest distress in his eyes. “I don’t know if that’s right, Harry. Leaving her here, I mean. She’s so smol-”

“I’ll stop you right here”, Harry said and shook his head but made an effort to find soothing words. “It’s inevitable if you want your sister to grow into a socially healthy person. She’ll get over not being with you 24/7, I assure you. Much faster than you’ll like.”

Eggsy looked past Harry’s shoulder to the nurse who waited for them awkwardly in the door, just in sight. “I don’t like this”, Eggsy said between gritted teeth while gnawing on his lower lip. “I don’t fucking like this.”

Harry put his hands on the younger man’s elbows that encircled his sister protectively and tried his best to comfort his companion so he was able to make the right decision. “Come on”, he whispered and gave Eggsy’s arms another squeeze until the younger man’s shoulders sunk in defeat. 

“You gonna have to hold me back if she cries”, he murmured and put on a false smile for Ms. Connor, who seemed relieved.

Of course Daisy screamed her heart out, but Harry didn’t need more than the tip of his fingers on the younger man’s warm forearm to hold Eggsy back while standing beside him, although said forearm twitched violently in its tenseness. 

“She’s gonna hate me”, Eggsy murmured and let Harry guide him back to the car.

 

 

Eggsy soon was distracted enough to let go of his thoughts on Daisy. Logistics was mathematics, and mathematics wasn’t Eggsy Unwin’s forte, as one would say politely. 

“Do you know how many miles a kilometre is?”, his new boss - DeAngelo sumthing - asked him with a doubtful furrow between his brows. 

“1 point what the fuck do I know”, Eggsy replied under his breath. The cold calculator lying on the desk in front of him didn’t give him any clue either. 

DeAngelo sighed, looking down at the watch on his crossed arms. He wore a suit, too, but it looked less...functional? Compared to the ones Harry wore, it was really out of the ordinary. 

“You can look it up in the books behind you on the shelf”, he said and left the room again, leaving Eggsy in the small office. 

“Never heard of google?”, Eggsy replied sharply and leaned back in his seat with a disappointed huff. He knew all too well that he would have long been kicked out for his attitude hadn’t he been introduced by Harry Hart, codename Galahad. The way DeAngelo had looked at Harry - full of surprise, respect and a bit of fear - had told Eggsy everything he needed to know about this place.

His joy about being introduced to Kingsman had subsided when Harry drove him to an outsourced office (“Security measures, since 1992”, as Harry had said) and handed him over to the most boring looking man Eggsy had ever seen. Instead of learning how to operate weapons, he was sitting in front of a mathematical problem now. 

‘If a military pick-up consumes 8.9 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers, has a total capacity of 90 liters and is filled up to 34%, how much gas has to be fueled for a extraction mission in a distance of exactly 745 miles?’

At least it had to something with the whole spy business, but it definitely wasn’t what Eggsy had expected.

He tried to call Harry in his lunch break but the older man didn’t answer his phone, deliberately Eggsy guessed. So instead he called at the nursery, to reassure himself that Daisy was okay. She had a nap, of course, Ms. Connor told him. 

After lunch break he was brought to a hangar where he was not allowed to do the following, only fun-promising things: fly a jet, drive a car, drive a forklift, fuel a jet, fuel a car, drive a Segway into a obstacle path of vehicles, climb on top of a jet wing, touch any of the weaponry attached to the vehicles, take a selfie of himself and any of the vehicles or try to pull a pick-up with a dyad of Segways. 

DeAngelo didn’t even let him take a look into any of the jets but instead guided him up the tower, where Eggsy was ultimately parked in the radiostation next to a funny smelling man named Mike. Mike was pretty okay, better than DeAngelo at last, and he didn’t wear boring suits but a hawaii shirt and converse. 

“First day here?”, Mike asked and leaned back to watch the fuzz going on down in the hangar. 

“And the last, hopefully”, Eggsy brooded.

Mike looked at him funny and raised both brows. “You’re lucky to be here an see this. Not that anyone even knows this terminal exists”, he huffed.

“I know”, Eggsy groaned, already feeling a bit sorry for his moody-teenager-attitude. It was a great chance and he knew that but since the day they had spoken about it in Harry’s office he had truly believed Harry would get him a job in...the more special parts of the organization. “It’s just that I hope for...something else.”

“Agents die easily”, Mike said, somehow knowing exactly what Eggsy meant. “If you want to grow old you might want to consider logistics again.”

“Galahad still lives”, Eggsy retorted. “Can’t be so bad.”

“He lay in coma for three months last year, they say”, Mike murmured and took a look on the computer to his left, where arriving flights where logged in. “Here, there we go.” His eyes brightened as he put on his headphones and began speaking to an approaching pilot. 

Eggsy listened for a while, watched the surprisingly small jet roll into the hangar. No agent exited it, only the crew left and logistic guys began to discharge black metal boxes of who knew what. Afterwards a cleaning team entered but Eggsy was long gone from the radio tower.


	5. Chapter 5

Harry ended his call and stepped out of his office with a sigh. Merlin’s cave was just up the stairs and down the floor, but the short walk was enough for Harry to taste a bit of blood as he gnawed on his lip nervously.

“I need your help”, he announced as he slipped into the open room. Despite having an office, the ‘tech cave’ was where Merlin did all of his actual work that didn’t involve drinking and swearing while comparing agent’s mission reports to the protocol from the handler’s video feed. 

“Can’t right now”, Merlin murmured, his eyes pointed at one of the three computer screens. “Bedivere’s blowing shit up again.”

“When doesn’t he”, Harry sighed and forced himself to relax a bit. DeAngelo had sounded upset, but that was mostly because he was afraid of the agent, not because he was worried about Eggsy. Harry took a look around the work place before he decided to give Merlin’s empty coffee cup a refill, while he waited. 

“Oh, and now he’s been stabbed”, Merlin huffed as Harry returned from the small buffet in the corner of the room where a can of heated coffee stood. Harry frowned at the video feed. 

“That was last Tuesday, wasn’t it?”

“Yes”, Merlin confirmed.

“So you’re not doing actual work, you just made me wait on purpose”, Harry grunted and let himself glide into a nearby chair with ease. 

“Exactly”, Merlin smiled devilishly and took his headphone off. “And look how you’ve calmed down.”

“I’m always calm”, Harry huffed and pulled his phone out his inner suit pocket, selected Eggsy’s number from his contacts and gave the phone to Harry. “Here, locate this number, please.”

Merlin threw him a suspicious look over the rim of his glasses and sighed heavily. “Have you tried to call him?”

“No, DeAngelo told me he was being a brat all morning. He’s not going to answer the phone when he’s sour at me for putting him into logistics.”

Merlin scrolled through Harry’s call record and then threw the phone back at Harry. “He called you, you wanker. Isn’t a gentleman supposed to call back if he isn’t available at the time?”

Harry pocketed his phone again and snorted. “You have no concept of being a gentleman whatsoever. Just locate his fucking number, please”, he added sweetly. 

“You have fucking control issues”, Merlin grunted and turned towards his computer to hack the number into the keyboard.

“You were the one who thought nicking his passport was a good idea.”

“It was. Now shut up”, Merlin murmured and worked the computer so he could show Harry a map of London. Eggsy was nowhere near the logistics department any more. His coordinates moved south steadily and fast, stopped at a crossing and continued to go west. 

“Where the fuck is he going?”, Harry murmured and finally pulled out his phone again. He selected Eggsy’s number and waited for the boy to take the call. Merlin turned his eyes away from the screen and took a sip of coffee while carefully watching his friend. 

“Hey Haz”, Eggsy answered and Harry judged from the background noises that he was sitting in a car.

“Eggsy, where are you?”

“Ugh, kinda hard to explain, bruv. I need to get some things from our old flat for Daisy”, the young man said, his voice sounding muffled. A car honked outside his vehicle, “Wanker”, Eggsy muttered.

“What gave you the idea you could just leave?”, Harry scolded and sighed inaudibly. Merlin raised a brow. 

“Well...I didn’t like it too much, I suppose”, Eggsy answered. It sounded muffled again, as if fabric scratched against the speakers of the phone.

“Eggsy, are you drivi-?”, Harry asked, but was interrupted by someone knocking in the line. He took a quick look. “It’s DeAngelo, excuse me for a second.”

“Fuck”, Eggsy muttered and ended the call. Harry didn’t have time to be irritated as DeAngelo promptly sputtered into his ear.

“Galahad, we’re missing a handgun plus ammunition from the warehouse and a cab from the garages, including the key. Since half an hour ago, approximately”, DeAngleo informed him and waited for Harry to answer, but the older man cursed and furiously ended the call. Merlin looked at him expectantly.

“He nicked a gun and a cab”, Harry breathed, trying to keep composure over this. Merlin’s brows fell immediately, he looked as irritated as Harry felt. 

“Well, fuck”, he murmured and both turned to the screen again, where the coordinates where entering Camden now. “Residing in 119J Alexandra and Ainsworth Estates”, Merlin recited from memory. “His old flat. What in god’s name is he doing?”

Harry was already half out of the door, one hand already on his phone to call Eggsy, the other one checking his shoulder holster. “Keep me updated where he is going exactly”, he told Merlin sternly and activated the connection on his glasses.

“Aye”, Merlin sighed and put his headphones on as Harry rushed down the corridor. 

 

Eggsy left the car at the corner, climbed out and took a quick stroll to the block Dean was living in. The weight of the gun tucked behind his waistband made him feel slightly dizzy, like a nicotine rush but truly, Eggsy knew, it was sort of a power complex. With this at hand Dean couldn’t do shit to him. 

He was glad he didn’t meet any of his old folks on the way to the flat or else his nervousness would probably have gotten the better of him. God knew what Harry was thinking about him now, but concerning what the older man explained to Eggsy, he had kind of a Get-out-of-Jail-free-Card with everything. So was he going to use it to pay his pile of shit of a step-dad back? Hell yeah.

Harry though probably thought he was being a right chav, robbing a bank or threatening some grandma for her purse with the fancy Kingsman gun. Eggsy pretended he didn’t care. This was a right shit day and he was too fed up with everything to give a single flying fuck over it.

His heart jumped higher when he took the stairs to the third floor, skipping a beat here and there. He tightened his grip around the gun, pulled it from his trousers with sewaty fingers and hid it behind his back before he rapped against the entrance of the flat. No answer. He knocked a second time, blood rushing through his ears. Still no answer.

It was early afternoon. Too late to go for a curry round the corner, too early to go for a pint. Perhaps Dean fell asleep while watching trash TV. Eggsy swallowed, took a step back and kicked the thin door down with a satisfying crash. It hadn’t been locked.

Carefully holding the handgun behind his back, the finger ready at the trigger, he entered the small, dark corridor and looked around the kitchen to his right, then the living room to his left. Nobody was there, only the TV whirred unhealthily, the screen broken and the pieces splattered on the floor. Eggsy advanced to his mother’s bedroom and listened hard at the wooden door. No snoring, no coughing, no moaning. He took a deep breath before he pushed down the handle.

There he was, Dean in all his glory. Eggsy swallowed again, instantly feeling nauseous, and put the gun away. Leaning in the doorway and observing Deans half naked body, the already dried stain of piss on his trousers, the bottle of vodka next to him on the bed, the crumbs of dry vomit on his torso, Eggsy felt tired. Tired of this and of the state of this flat and the state of his life. 

Sighing deeply, he reached for an Umbrella next to the door to push Dean’s lifeless foot. It was hard as a brick. 

“Shit”, Eggsy murmured, “fucking shit.”

He left the room and shut the door, instead went for his own bedroom to pack a few more belongings. The smell in here was less breathtaking, although nobody had bothered to throw away the last change of diapers he did on Daisy before Dean had kicked them out. Slowly, feeling extremely lethargic all of the sudden, he gathered some of the things that were still useful and perhaps valuable. There was no cash, of course, but now he had enough room in one of the backpacks to pack the framed picture of his father, the cheap jewellery of his mom, some of their family photos, another of Daisy’s plushies and more of their clothes. 

When there was no place in the backpack left, he sat down on his small single bed and stared at the opposite wall. He looked at the low-quality speakers on the shelf, his old PC and finally to the mirror to watch his sorry self look like death in person. He wasn’t even surprised over Dean’s death, or sorry, he just felt nothing. Nothing and a bit dizzy.

Suddenly, there were steps in the kitchen and Eggsy’s body tensed. If anyone would find him here he would be dick-deep in shit. 

“Eggsy?”, an all too familiar voice called out and Eggsy felt his chest tighten. He closed his eyes and waited for Harry to find Dean. The bedroom door shrieked, the steps stopped. 

“Dead down on the bed, Merlin, although he died a day or two ago”, Eggsy heard the older man’s muffled voice, the door shrieked again and the steps were getting louder as Harry approached his bedroom. 

The door was kicked open gently and Eggsy looked into the barrel of a gun first, then into Harry’s eyes as the older man hurried to lower the weapon. “Eggsy”, Harry breathed and stopped in the doorway. “Are you okay?”

Eggsy nodded, not sure if this was the truth.

Harry sighed and raised his middle finger to push at the bridge of his nose. “He’s fine. I’m ending the transmission now”, he told Merlin obviously ended the call. 

Silence spread between them as Harry searched for the right words. Originally he had a good scolding planned out in his head, but now that there was a dead man in the room next doors it sounded a bit pathetic.

“Do you know that...man”, Harry said and vaguely gestured towards the bedroom with his gun, looking a bit helpless with his posh suit and high-tech gadgets amidst Eggsy’s shabby room. 

“Wos my Step-dad”, Eggsy sighed and ran a hand through his sweaty hair. “He’s Daisy’s real dad, too. Didn’t keep him from kicking us out, though.”

Harry lowered his eyes and swallowed against his dry mouth. After finally realizing that all possible enemies were already deceased, he tucked his gun away in his holster and crossed the room to sit on the bed next to Eggsy. 

Harry’s voice was professional now, almost cold, reserved. “A gun was reported stolen - did you want to kill him?”, he asked quietly.

Eggsy shook his head. “Only for self-protection.”

Harry nodded. Another moment of silence and Eggsy felt a warm hand starting to run up his back in slow circles. He closed his eyes to concentrate on the soothing feeling and not on the smell of the flat or the dirty light that fell through even dirtier windows. 

Eventually he sacked against Harry shoulder, breathing in the cologne of the older man. A skilled hand ran around his right side and pulled the gun from his waistband with care, pulled away and started rubbing his back again.

“It’s okay if you want to cry”, Harry murmured, his voice low and calm.

“I’m not going to cry over this dickhead”, Eggsy murmured back and tried not to sound offended. Harry chuckled and moved in a bit, unconsciously making Eggsy lean even farther into his torso. “I’m just tired of things like this happening.”

Harry made an understanding sound. He cleared his throat and stopped his hand. Eggsy opened his eyes and inevitably looked into the mirror across from them, looked at them both in a stiff embrace, looked at Harry’s peaceful face turned towards the window.

“How about we take the cab back to Logistics, call the police about...”, he wrinkled his nose, “...this guy over there and then get Daisy and some Chinese takeout on the way home?”

“Sounds fine”, Eggsy answered and pulled back from Harry.

 

Two days later - it was Eggsy’s first day at the Department for Ammunition and Explosives that Kingsman had merged with the MI6’s in the late 80’s - Harry made a better example of himself and took Eggsy out for lunch in his break to hear how he liked the job, in person. 

Eggsy took his chance this time and better be it because Harry only avoided Arthur hearing of the missing gun and car by a hair’s breadth. DeAngelo hadn’t needed more than the usual implication about how much Harry knew about his relatives in the IRA to stop him from reporting to higher authorities, but the man taking the inventory at the time they noted things were missing needed to be bribed with Harry’s nicest and most deathly tie. A shame really, to waste such a tie in Logistics. 

“How was your day?”, Harry asked Eggsy over fried rice with duck. Eggsy stopped chewing, considered and threw a lazy smile.

“Stressful”, he just said as he indulged himself in the food. “Though nothin’ much happened til now.”

Harry asked a few simple question to which Eggsy answered shortly and with low interest, and like this the older man began speaking a bit of his own day, something he never had made a habit of since Merlin often was his only partner over dinner and lunch and that bastard already knew everything there was to know. 

“I’ll be gone for three days from Friday, please don’t blow something up while I’m away. Or steal any guns or cars from my boss”, Harry noted to the younger man.

“Ya got into much trouble because of me?”, Eggsy asked carefully and Harry couldn’t help but smile into the handkerchief that he was using to wipe his mouth. The scolding yesterday - after most of the shock from finding his dead step-father in the flat vanished and left no permanent damage - had been effective, apparently. The boy looked at him like a hurt dog, but, well, that was a bit of an act between the cheeky remarks he usually sported and Harry could see right through it. 

So he just snorted. “Just don’t do it again.”

“Promise”, Eggsy grinned and took another bite. 

After Harry was gone to prepare his mission, Eggsy returned to the Department of Bombs and Shit to work on whatever his new boss was making him do. The boss - she - had short black hair and only one eye and brow left, which oddly made her even more interesting to look at. In a good way. And that’s the story how Eggsy got shitted at after to minutes into meeting her first. Being threatened to clean every corner in the room in an Australian accent unfortunately didn’t do much to intimidate Eggsy and soon he found himself with a wet cloth scrubbing work desk clean off traces of explosives. 

Next to him in the workshop though worked a chunky man with grey turning hair on something that looked very much like the kind of things Eggsy had hoped for when Harry described the Department to him.

“Is that a nail bomb?”, he asked while leaning over the desk he was just cleaning. The guy turned around to him slowly. 

“Do I look like someone who would do London Marathon?”, he asked dryly and Eggsy needed a few seconds to realize it was a joke. Not a funny one, though.

“Seriously, what is that?”

The man leaned back, took his glasses off and pushed the little lamp that illuminated his work piece away so Eggsy could take a better look at the construction. It was a lot - and by a lot he didn’t think of a bunch but of a bundle - of cables with little packages, supposedly explosives, attached to it. Every cable was connected to at least two more and a small board, which Eggsy assumed to be the computer. 

“A SEB.”

Eggsy raised a brow and looked at him, unimpressed of any spy slang.

“A structural engineering bomb”, the man elaborated. “If it’s installed right, the computer attached can calculate the exact place and amount of explosives needed to let specific rooms of a building collapse without making the whole thing tumble down.” 

A glint sparked in the eyes of the man and Eggsy had to smile at how proud he was.

“Does it work?”, he asked.

The smile vanished into a thin line. “It didn’t the first 4 times. I’m confident in this one, though.” 

Eggsy nodded understandingly and continued his swiping over the work desk until his boss came in to get him. It didn’t take long, and when Eggsy left work after another few slightly more interesting hours of his taster day (mostly visiting the different bureaus and workshops), the guy was still sitting in front of his construction. 

 

Two days later Harry was gone again without any further goodbyes but this time at least Eggsy knew what the agent was actually doing. In the tube with Daisy he pictured him running through a Colombian rain forest, or the busy streets of Barcelona, always dressed impeccably and with a gun at hand. Slightly sweaty, too. Eggsy could almost feel the thrill of the chase himself, the rush of adrenaline, his legs getting heavier.

The next stop came and he had to move on from his imagination to drop Daisy off at the nursery. Today, he finally managed to overhear his bosses name - she had a code name like a proper Kingsman agent would have, at least Eggsy thought it that way - which didn’t catch the first time, because Harry was in a rush to get to the office in time (whatever that meant in the Harry-universe) and he was hurriedly handed over to her without a lot of introducing. 

A worker named Henry who seemed to detonate bombs all day in order to find the most effective ways told Eggsy that she was called Andred after the field agent Tristan, who was her actual cousin and got her a place among the trainees 15 years back. From where she worked her way up fairly, of course. 

While helping Henry from MI6 by handing him his tools to where he was crouching and partly lying beneath the apparatus, Eggsy brooded a bit over what he’d just heard. Kingsman was exclusive, like any secret intelligence service would naturally be, and additionally to that it seemed to be essential to have connections within the organization. Which meant, if he hadn’t met Harry, nobody at Kingsman would have wanted him for any reason. 

He did not have a major degree, nor was he experienced or specialized. He wasn’t even clever above average or cunning or whatever qualities any of the jobs in Logistics or Ammunition and Explosives demanded. The people working here were elitists, they probably wouldn’t even look at him if they met on the street. 

He left Henry soon in favour of visiting the guy in the workshops again and take a look at his progress. 

The construction looked a bit less difficult than yesterday. All the cables were neatly hidden behind black plastic cases and he had installed a small keyboard onto the computer, plus a screen that would show the blueprint of the building that was about to blow up. 

“Looks aces”, Eggsy complimented from the door frame and the guy turned around to him with a distressed frown. 

“You again”, he said dryly. 

“Me, yes. Have you finished?”

The guy nodded. “I need to make some final changes to the case and prime it, then we are ready for a test run.”

Eggsy nodded. “Can I help you with anything?”

“You could get the explosives from the storage in Logistics”, the guy sighed and reached into his inner jacket pocket for his phone. “What’s your name? They will hand it over to you at the gate.”

“Gary Unwin”, Eggsy told him and watched as the engineer hacked in his name, too, and signed the virtual order with the nail of his index finger. 

“Goood”, the older man sighed and looked up again to where Eggsy was standing. “1kg of C4, that’s plastic explosive. Be careful with that.”

“Isn’t that the forbidden shit? Like the shit they ain’t allowed to produce anymore”, Eggsy frowned.

“That’s why I said you should be careful”, the man said again and smirked devilishly. “They’ll give you the receipt at the administration office.”

 

Half an hour later Eggsy was standing in front of the Logistic Department again, a nagging feeling in his stomach. He was about to carry fucking explosives from one part of the town to another for the engineer named Ralph Vaughn, as Eggsy took from the receipt. He felt a sting of betrayal at the thought that he might be hoaxed with this shit. Sending an intern to get the most vital parts of a bomb - what a funny joke!, he thought bitterly as he was let through into yet another administrators office - which was fortunately nowhere near to DeAngelo’s workplace - after showing his transitory security pass. Soon enough a woman (she was obviously also new to the job and didn’t know Vaughn’s name yet) fetched him from the office and led him to the storage which was - compared to what Eggsy had seen on his first day here - gigantic. They walked for 6 minutes before they reached a suspiciously looking aisle of shelves with grey cartons.

The woman pulled 2 packages from the box and handed them to Eggsy with a grin. “Careful with these babies”, she told him through her white plastic smile and waited for him to nod and go before she put the carton back in it’s original place.

The ‘C4’ - if something like that existed at all - was chewy and smelled like modeling clay. In the cab back to the Ammunition and Explosives Department he opened one of the plastic cases and threw a look inside on five neatly and individually packed grey sticks. That definitely wasn’t explosive for god’s sake.

Eggsy sighed and leaned back against the dirty window. Seriously? Why did they fucking prank him with dangerous shit like this? 

He shouldn’t let himself be played like that. Just because he was the special kid, the slow one Harry Hart made everyone keep an eye on. By the time he climbed out of the cab, he was shaking with suppressed anger towards Vaughn and the storage lady and everyone who thought it would be okay to allow their employees to pull such pranks on the new kid. 

He could try to call Harry and let off some steam, get some useful advice before he threw a tantrum in the middle of his shift. On his second fucking day. He promised, though, to behave himself, and Harry probably had more important things to do at the moment. 

Eggsy took a moment to gather himself and found the self-control to show up at the workshop again. Lips tight and without a word he pulled put the packages and carefully handed them to Vaughn. 

Vaughn lips were twitching in amusement and if Eggsy hadn’t been observing him as wary as he was now the engineer could have probably fooled him. The smaller man turned around, every of his moves oozing with care and gentleness as he handled the explosives, and took to steps before he...tripped. The fucking wanker just tripped over his own feet, fell forwards, screamed in horror and let the packages fall to the floor. 

Half a second later he had turned around to Eggsy, who was now leaning with his arms crossed over his chest in the door frame and shook his head unbelievingly. Eggsy’s reaction obviously didn’t please the engineer. 

“Damn it”, Vaughn swore, half a disappointed smile already back on his face, “the new kids mostly pee their pants.”

“Are you rotten in the head, or what?”, Eggsy spit out and threw Vaughn a look of pure disgust. “You’re a fucking dickhead if you think that stuff is funny.”

“Oh, I assure you I find it quite funny”, Vaughn huffed, raising from the floor and pushing the packages together with the side of his shoe. 

Eggsy didn’t quite know how to react to this self-pleased pile of shit and with great self-control it was that he decided to not gift Vaughn with any more attention. Instead, he strode angrily to Henry’s little airfield, that had been used as a private landing strip back in the seventies but now served a far greater cause.

“I need to blow shit up. Now”, Eggsy snarled an explanation as he entered the break room of the bomb-testing team he had gotten to know yesterday. “Please”, he added and put a bitter urgency into his gaze. Hopefully being aquainted to Harry would bring him this favour, and after all this was the fucking Explosive department. The earlier he demanded to do the cool stuff, the better.

Henry had snorted and looked at Eggsy with pity, murmuring something like ‘He got ya, didn’t he?’ as he raised from his chair and gestured for Eggsy to follow him to the hangar where their stored some tested and professionally wrecked car parts. 

“I can’t let you fire real explosives, but those will do just fine”, Henry sighed and pressed a compact beige packet into Eggsy’s hands.


	6. Chapter 6

Harry finally found a quiet street where he could reload his weapon and check his body for serious injuries. 

“They are going the opposite direction, well done, Galahad”, Merlin told him and a faint smile appeared on Harry’s lips. There was blood on his temple but it was already crusted and the remains weren’t big enough for him to worry. His rib cage hurt, though, on the left side where he took a punch from a knuckleduster and almost went down. 

“Is the mark dead?”, he asked, still breathing heavily from his quick sprint.

“He hasn’t moved for 4 minutes. Hard to judge just from CCTV”, Merlin answered. 

“I should return and search his body for the info”, Harry considered, “as long as Narco’s henchmen are busy searching for me.”

“I still doubt your man would carry it with him on a portable USB-drive, or even on a written note. That information is just too sensible.”

“We’ll see”, Harry answered, checked his gun for the second time and entered the main road again, blending with the mass of business men in suits and glasses beautifully. New Yorkers wouldn’t grant him or the blood stains on his shirt a second look if their life depended on it. 

He hurried through the traffic back to the restaurant he was just leaving with the mark when Narco’s men attacked them. Fortunately for Harry (not so fortunately for the man who was still lying in the damp cold streets) nobody had retrieved the body or called an ambulance.

Harry knelt down, felt the man’s pulse and sighed. “Man down”, he admitted to Merlin. 

“A shame”, the handler answered, “I know you enjoyed his flirting.”

“It was clumsy at best.”

“You still felt flattered. Admit it, Harry.”

Harry ground his teeth at his friend’s smug voice and turned the body around. His skillful hands checked pockets and inseams for hidden devices, notes and letters, ignoring the fact that the flesh underneath was still warm. He pulled the marks shoes off, looked into the young man’s ears and mouth and checked his anus, too. There was nothing.

“He doesn’t have it”, he groaned and let himself fall next to the man. His backside hit ground hard, but his rib cage hurt far more than that to bother him.

“Every clue we have leads to him, Galahad. Think, for god’s sake.”

Harry groaned again angrily, turned his head to look out for enemies and crouched over the mark again. He was a young man, twenty-five years of age, born in London and moved to New York when he was fifteen. Where would he save and hide the most vital information of his life? Names on which his life depended on, names that lead to the five other heads of the drug ring Merlin and he were investigating currently. 

Harry looked down to the hands. Hands always told a lot about someone. The mark had accurately manicured nails and soft, uncalloused hands. His knuckles were reddened from the cold, his skin faint from the long winter here at the east cost. His ring finger was green were a ring of low quality had been, and on his wrist- Harry gasped in pleasure as he saw the pointy end of a filigree tattoo ranking up into the shirt sleeves. 

Harry pulled the knife from his trousers and sit the fabric open all up to the biceps. The tattoo went up to the elbow, where fine streaks of black paint joined into one ornament on the inside of the young man’s arm. 

“That’s what were looking for”, Merlin breathed, his excitement barely audible. 

Harry pointed at the initials embedded into the ornament, six of them and one pair belonged to the mark. “Will this count as evidence? Because if not we’re still working with assumptions.”

“It’s another part of the puzzle, I suppose”, Merlin answered. “I made a photo, you better get out of there, now.”

“No”, Harry shook his head. “We can’t leave it to Narco.”

Harry pinned the hand down with his shoe and pushed the shoulder up with his own left hand so the knife would slide through the taut skin easily. He skinned the inner side of the elbow and folded the lappet in half before he put it in his suit pocket.

“That was gross”, Merlin swallowed.

“You better get me out of here”, Harry said, ignoring Merlin’s comment entirely. He knew the handler would rather puke his heart out than carry skin of another human being in his pocket. “I’ll wait at the dock for the helicopter.”

There was no time to relax on the short flight from bay to hangar, but as soon as Harry stepped into the Kingsman jet he felt exhaustion overrun him like a forceful wave. He didn’t check his phone nor did he strip off his jacket, he just fell asleep in his seat in knowledge that Merlin would wake him in time. 

 

3 missed calls. 

From: Eggsy 3:12 pm  
is everyone in your spy club a total dickhead?! dude just tried to trick me into thinking I was handling explosives!

From: Eggsy 3:15 pm  
not including u of course

From: Eggsy 3:15 pm  
& i don’t think something like C4 actually exists

From: Eggsy 3:15 pm  
but he’s still a dickhead  
gonna blow some shit up now.

From: Eggsy 3:18 pm  
Henry said I could only blow up old airbags  
Where do they keep the good stuff????

From: Eggsy 3:27 pm  
Oh this is actually good stuff, just made an egg jump up 15m

From: Eggsy 4:15 pm  
I figure you’re still busy, will get Daisy from the daycare and cook at home. You’ll come around? You said you were coming back today

From: Eggsy 10:30 pm  
there are still leftovers in the fridge, c u tomorrow guv. TGIF

 

Harry blew a lot of frustrated air through his nose and put his phone back into his pocket when the cab stopped in front of his house. The porch was dim lit, the rest of the house was dark.

“Thank you, Wallace”, Harry said and climbed out of the car. His hands automatically found the way to the bridge of his nose, hoping to massage the headache and dizziness you get from napping 5 hours in the middle of the day away. 

He didn’t bother to switch on the light inside the house but regretted the decision the moment he almost tripped over one of Daisy’s toys. At least some of the light from the street lamps outside lit the kitchen, and he let the refrigerator open after pulling out the leftovers. 

He didn’t bother to warm the rice pudding either, just shoveled it into his mouth while leaning limblessly over the counter and staring at his phone and the very one-sided conversation he had with Eggsy while he napped on the flight.

The fact that it wasn’t entirely Eggsy’s fault didn’t change the fact that it obviously didn’t work out again. He had this feeling. The young man’s attitude towards this department changed as soon as he realized he was being played with, even if it was a simple joke.

Harry blamed himself, too. Coming in through connections was an old trick which still worked with in the circle of active field agents, but the other departments clearly favoured different qualifications nowadays. Education, stability, experience. Nothing of which Eggsy could come up with. 

Harry groaned into a mouthful of rice and tried to think of nothing for a while. It didn’t work so he put everything into the sink and went upstairs to have a smoke on the balcony. The first drag was heaven, the second was hell and reminded him why he hated smoking. He coughed, probably loud enough to wake half the neighboorhoud.

“Oh, you’re back”, a voice came from the door between balcony and office. Well, it certainly woke his housemate, if said boy hadn’t been awake long before, because that’s what he looked like.

“I am”, Harry answered in a lack of words. His legs were tired so he leaned against the railing. Eggsy looked tired but not unwell, especially by the way his eyes slowly brightened up. He must be cold, Harry thought, looking at the slags and tank top the young man was dressed in. 

“You got my texts?”, Eggsy asked, carefully bridging the distance between them and leaning against the railing, too. 

“Rice pudding was delicious”, Harry tried to smile but it didn’t work quite as he wanted. 

“Didn’t knew you smoked.”

“I don’t. It was a long day.”

Eggsy nodded and looked over the street at their feet, the small houses lined up in neat rows beside clean streets. He turned his head back to Harry, suddenly with a gleeful smile on his sharp face. 

“Will you tell me tomorrow?”

Harry regarded him for a moment and felt an odd reflexive wave washing over him. Eggsy and his sister were living with him for over three weeks now, they had found a day care not far away from his house and Eggsy slowly enrolled in Kingsman with more or less success. Eggsy depended on him, and that wouldn’t change for some more weeks, maybe months. 

Being an agent made one aware of his power, taught one how to use his influence on others to exploit or protect them. Harry blinked and rubbed his burning eyes. He couldn’t let himself take advantage of Eggsy’s special situation, no matter how handsome he looked in the pale moonlight or how lightly he was dressed. 

“It’s confidential”, he said, looking back to Eggsy and feeling his chest ache. “But you should tell me about your adventures today at...”, he wiggled his hand and tried to remember the words Eggsy used three days before, “the ‘Department of Bombs and Shit’.”

Eggsy looked at him for too long and Harry’s intestines felt heavier with the second. Eventually Eggsy nodded, pulled a smile and wished him a good night. 

“Thank god it’s Friday”, Harry murmured to himself and left the balcony to make his way into bed. 

 

Understandably, Harry slept in while Eggsy brought some order to the house, made breakfast for his house mate and visited the park with Daisy after giving some of their good clothes to the dry cleaner. When he was back by 1 pm, Harry was sitting in the kitchen, frowning over a bowl of cereal. He was fully dressed but his suit jacket.

“Are you going in today?”, Eggsy asked as he froze in the door, a giggling Daisy on his arm. 

Harry looked up to him, still chewing and looking moody. “Merlin called me in 10 minutes ago.”

“You are wearing the suit you wore yesterday”, Eggsy noted.

Harry looked down on himself, his frown increasing more and more until it matched the on of Dr. House on the encounter with the lady who was too incompetent to use her inhalator right. “Is there something wrong with it?”, he asked sharply.

“I took your jacket to the dry cleaner”, Eggsy answered. “There were specks of blood on it.”

Harry let his spoon fall back into the bowl. Sprinkles of milk distributed on his pressed shirt.

“Please tell me you’re joking”, Harry said, voice flat and face going pale but soon reddening again with anger as Eggsy said nothing, just sat Daisy down on the floor and wiped his hands on his jeans. 

“I’m not, thought it might be a good idea”, Eggsy said, “it reeked, too”, he added.

The power with which Harry rose from his feet and sprinted towards Eggsy made the younger man jump back. Harry gripped him by his arms and shook him slightly, but with control. Like an interrogator would. The manhandling made Eggsy burn with defiance immediately, and instinct he preserved from the estates. 

“Because there was a piece of dead skin in it, for god’s sake!”

Eggsy snorted. “Well, sorry I didn’t figure it out by the smell.”

Harry let him go and pushed by into the hallway, hurrying to put on a pair of shoes. “Which dry cleaner?”, he asked angrily.

“Thompson”, Eggsy answered, “but it’s put on my name, he won’t give it to you.”

“Oh he will”, Harry murmured, grabbing his holster from the hook and checking the weapon. He then checked his watch and the remaining amnesia darts.

“Hey, calm down, Haz”, Eggsy tried and put his hand on Harry’s biceps. “No need to threaten anyone, we’ll get there in time.”

Harry’s head turned to him and his eyes were piercing through Eggsy’s face, but his voice didn’t sound as harsh anymore. “You have no idea what depends on this flap, Eggsy.”

Eggsy rolled his eyes and swiped Daisy from the floor, ushering Harry out the door in the same fluent movement. “Yes, yes, the security of the free world, you can tell me in the cab.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oh god, i'm so sorry for the lacking update. fi-nal-ly, the story proceeds.

Harry told him nothing, kept his mouth tightly shut and his hands clenched on his thighs. Daisy’s silly giggling made the tension bearable, though, if not entirely ridiculous. 

“You can tell me, bruv”, Eggsy smirked, not letting Harry’s distress pass on to him. “I won’t kink shame you.”

“I already informed you: this is bloody serious.”

“Yeah, but what will a bit of dry cleaning do to a patch of skin, you get me? It can wrinkle, maybe stink some more, that’s all.”

Harry knocked his temple against the cool glass of the cab door. “You have no idea how dry cleaning works, do you?”

Eggsy snorted. “It’s not like I got any clothing that need more than a cold-water-and-soap-rinse.”

Harry thought about it and affirmed the notion internally. He should get the boy something to wear. 

“They usually use a chemical called perchlorethylene to remove stains and what not from the textile, which has a toxic effect on the human body when touched or inhaled. Skin and airways will be irritated, the central nerve system can be affected. I have no idea how long the ink will be preserved”, Harry sighed.

“Sooo, you’re going for the tattoed kind of guy”, Eggsy said, counting one and one together. 

Harry turned his head slowly, blinking at the young man in irritation. “You really think this is the right time to flirt?”

He’s tired and stressed but he really shouldn’t have said this. His heart skipped a beat, clearly he’s done a mistake, putting whatever odd thing their relationship was on a different level.

Eggsy on his side didn’t even notice, or pretended not to and was very good at it. “I really think this is the right time to tell me what the fuck is going on.” Daisy approved, wriggling her tiny hands and making strange noises sounding as if she had something stuck in her throat. Harry looked at her and sighed, feeling a bit of the stress relieving at the sight of those bright eyes. 

He kept his mouth shut until they reached the dry cleaner, leaving the cabbie waiting for them in the parking lot. Harry stormed in first, slamming his hand on the counter to gather the staffs attention, closely followed by Eggsy who scrambled in his pocket for his ID while holding Daisy on his hip. 

Before one of the employees can greet them with cold politeness, Harry takes over the conversation: “I need my suit. Grey pinstripe, on the name of Gary Unwin”, he barked and waited impatiently for the clerk to disappear again with a scared look in his eyes.

“Don’t scream, alright?”, Eggsy murmured beside him, softly putting his ID on the counter. “It’s my fault, not his.”

“It’s not your fault”, Harry said between clenched teeth and fought his stress in favour of some reassuring words. “It was actually very considerate of you.”

“Thanks”, Eggsy murmured back, eyeing the room like the usual costumer would. He blended in perfectly, busy but patient, only half-concentrated at the task before him. Harry thought again what a good field agent Eggsy might make. 

The clerk came back with the right suit jacket and with relief Harry realized there were still spots of blood on it. “Thank god”, he murmured under his breath and reached over the counter to snap it out of the clerk’s hands. “That will be all”, he said absentmindedly, while feeling for the plastic zipper back in the pocket. His fingers touched the cool material and the movement made a faint smell of death reek up to him. Excellent. 

Back in the cab he pulled out the plastic bag fully and checked its contents carefully. Eggsy eyed it, too, overly attentive and curious while still rocking Daisy on his knee. The skin was perfect, still fresh and rosy. A disgusting looking layer of blood and what not had deposited against the inner wall of the zipper bag but otherwise it was fine. The ink was still darkly contrasted against the pale colour. 

“Let me see”, Eggsy said and snapped it out of Harry’s hand holding it close to his head to take a better look. 

Daisy was about to grab it when Harry intervened and pulled her out of Eggsy’s lap, turning her head towards him and the window so she wouldn’t see the flap of skin. “That’s not for little princesses”, he murmured and held an outstretched hand between her head and Eggsy when she looked back to her brother. 

“This is fucking ace”, Eggsy murmured under his breath and turned the back clockwise. “And totally disgusting.”

Harry nodded solemnly and sighed into Daisy’s fair hair. 

“Must hurt a fucking lot”, Eggsy said, looking up to Harry with his brows furrowed. 

“He was already dead.”

Eggsy stilled for a second, blinking. 

“Did you kill him?”

“No.”

“But you would have?”

Harry turned his head back towards the window. Daisy clenched her fist uncomfortably into his lapels, tugging at the skin, too, and wriggled in his grip. 

“Why would I?”

“Because it’s easier to cut his skin when he isn’t resisting?”

Harry turned his head back to face Eggsy green, piercing eyes. He knew the mental image which went through the young man’s mind just now, and he knew it couldn’t be that far from reality. It was also not far from the reality of Harry’s daily routine. Killing people who got in his way - mostly henchman without names and face -, less often the assassination of a mark, kidnapping, torturing. Some undercover work now and then, less bloody but really boring and exhausting, sadly. In conclusion the job got more bloody the older he was, especially now that he slowly became too old for honeypots. 

“He was already dead”, Harry repeated and ended the conversation. 

They took the time to deliver Daisy at the day care even though Harry was already late for his meeting with Merlin. 

“So why is this shit so important?”, Eggsy asked as soon as he got back in the cab. “Please, Haz, tell me.”

Harry snorted. “You’re dying to know, don’t you?”

Eggsy nodded. Harry shook his head. “We should talk about your internship at A&E.”

“They don’t take me serious, Harry. And neither do you, come on! Tell what this shit is about.”

“I guess you can’t expect that if you’re going there without a university degree and proper experience”, Harry sighed, ignoring Eggsy's pleading. “I’m sorry, I should have considered this before.”

Eggsy leaned back and looked out of the window, the muscles in his jar working. Harry tried to remember how it had been to be so young and green and not getting respect from anyone while being supposed to show respect to everyone.

Harry pulled out his phone and chose Andred’s number from his contacts, to inform her that her intern wasn’t coming in today and was moved to HQ. 

Eggsy’s head slowly turned to him as he witnessed the conversation and a smile broke from his face. As soon as Harry ended the call Eggsy was all over him. 

“You serious, right? I’m gonna see your spy headquarters?”

Harry rubbed his hands over his tired eyes and nodded. “You will”, he said and threw Eggsy a small smile beneath his lashes. 

 

After they had dropped Daisy at the day care he instructed the driver to take them stright to the shop. He had done this a few times before, introducing new young people to the Kingsman facilities, starting at the tailor shop in Savile Row, entering the fitting rooms, taking the capsule and in the end the estate itself. He had done it some times already, but none of his recruits or guest (given that they came from wealthy backgrounds with high expectations) had brought him so much joy. Eggsy’s eyes were constantly glowing, gluing themselves at everything shiny and dangerous looking. 

Harry spared him the fitting room with all the weaponry for now, wanting to get to Merlin before his good-morning mood was over. Eggsy asked him a few questions on their ride to HQ, all of which Harry happily complied to answer. 

They reached Merlin’s office being only half an hour late and Eggsy soon stopped gazing around open mouthed as they stepped into the realm of the quartermaster. 

Merlin looked up from his computer before Harry even had the chance to knock (the doors always being open and the walls to the hallways made out of glass so Merlin could surveillance not only his agents via the comm but also the bordering hallway).

“Do you have it?”, was his first question.

Harry nodded and stepped in signing for Eggsy to follow him. Merlin eyed the young man warily but soon focused his attention on the lap of skin.

“May I asked how this ended up in a dry cleaning shop?”, he scoffed.

Eggsy eyed Harry from the side, swallowing loudly.

Harry stepped in before the young man could start making explanations. “How did you come to that deduction?”, he asked innocently.

Merlin rolled his eyes at him, sighing deeply. “You’re a lost cause, Galahad.”

“And you promised not to track me in my free time.”

“I had to make sure you would move your ass in here before dusk”, Merlin huffed and pulled on latex gloves. He then raised from his seat and carefully extracted the skin from it’s plastic case.

“He’s a coroner, too, huh?”, Eggsy whispered, following Merlin’s moves with attention and wary. 

“More of a hobby.”

They then followed Merlin into a dark room where he lay the lap into a preserving liquid and put it into a scanner. 

“I hope this information will give us another lead”, Merlin murmured as they waited for the light to pass over the and back again. 

“What is this about?”, Eggsy finally asked again. Merlin and Harry shared a look before Merlin finally smacked his lips and lead them back into his office where he showed them a graphic chart of what Kingsman had done until now in this case.

“We’ve been monitoring the previous owner of the tatto - we call him the Flirter-”

“You call him the Flirter”, Harry interrupted.

“...for some time now. Other agents working on different cases in different fields have discovered traces of him, his business DNA tangled in a lot of nasty deals. Digitally, the Tech Department found that his transactions are fishy, similar to a money laundry. So what we’re assuming is that...”, Merlin pointed his finger at a crappy CCTV picture in the middle of his screen, “it’s all leading to him.”

“Who’s he?”, Eggsy asked, squinting his eyes to make out more details in the picture but all he could really see was black short hair and a red tie, the rest was too pixelated. 

“Narco”, Merlin provided. “That’s what the Flirters transactions were named. Could be his name, could be a abbreviation, initials. We don’t know yet.”

Silence spread for a moment as all three of them were focussing on the picture.

“I have a question”, Eggsy then said dramatically as if he was about to ask the question that would make them find the solution to the mystery.. “If you don’t know anything, why are you assuming Narco is a man then?”

Merlin and Harry shared a look. 

“It’s a man in 99 per cent of the cases, Eggsy”, Harry supplied quietly, sighing even more faintly. 

Eggsy shrugged. “Was worth a try.”

A tired smile was playing on Harry’s lips, but he soon let it fall when he noted Merlin’s skeptical expression.

“May I ask what he is even doing here?”, the quartermaster addressed Harry dryly. 

“Well, A&E didn’t seem to fit him all too much.”

Merlin eyed him for a moment, his jaw clenching. “I already have four interns, Galahad.”

“Don't act like you didn't assign Morgana to all of them. And by the way, you still owe me a favor.”

“What favor?”, the Scot huffed.

“2nd of December 1973.”

“We didn’t even know each other then, Harry.”

Harry crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You remember Richard, the intern of the Tech Department in 1973? Of course you don’t, because I scared him away and therefore opened the possibility for you to join Kingsman.”

"How did you scare him away?", Eggsy asked. 

"A story for another day", Harry answered.

“Well thank you for ruining my life then”, Merlin sighed sarcastically while sitting down again behind his desk. “Besides you surely didn’t do that intentionally.”

Harry smacked his lips. “As present-day pop media says: ‘The universe is rarely so lazy’. Maybe I saw you in the hallway with your nerdy glasses and awful sweater vest, maybe I thought you...what do the young people say? 'cute? You had hair back then, remember?”, he teased further.

Merlin laughed out loud. “You didn’t even realize you were gay before 1976!”

Harry made a disapproving sound, turning around to Eggsy who was standing behind him very uncomfortably. “I’m sorry for this”, he murmured.

Merlin threw a look at Eggsy, too, brightly smiling now. “I thought he were a doaty scrote all along, though he was just a pile of suppressed homosexuality and expensive pomade.”

“I don’t know exactly what that means but I’m sure he’s improved since then”, Eggsy answered politely on the brink of flushing. 

“Not much.” Merlin sighed and leaned back in his chair, avoiding Harry’s expecting gaze. “All right, he can stay.”

“Splendid”, Harry nodded, turning around to his young friend. “I’m sure you will have a great time.”

Eggsy stared at him, not really knowing whether to thank him or to run away.

“I’ll pick you up at four”, Harry smiled and excused himself.

 

By the time he arrived at Merlin’s office at precisely 13 minutes after 4 o’clock the two were sitting at Merlin’s desk, feet resting comfortable on top and throwing peanuts into each other’s mouths. Eggsy managed to land three in quick succession but to be honest Merlin had a fairly big clacker, figuratively and literally. There were small piles of crumpled paper and broken pencils littering the place around the table, also Eggsy’s cap was pinned to the wall by Merlin’s Victorinox. At a second look he really didn’t want to know how they ended up in this position.

“You two seem to be enjoying yourself”, Harry greeted them, leaning in the doorway. He knew his voice sounded tired, and he truly was after all the paperwork and the short talk with Arthur. The quick training session in the gym had done the rest, he was ready to go home. 

Eggsy turned around to him, smiling brightly and very much at ease with himself. “The tattoo is a fucking pass code”, he mouthed around a mouthful of nuts. 

Merlin nodded solemnly, taking a bit sip from his coffee cup and in passant pressing a key on his keyboard.

“It opens the channel to a encrypted chat room in the transaction server the Flirter used. The system is still running to download all the data without trace.” Merlin smirked, deeply pleased with himself.

"Ya it's the shit! Like when you playing Sims and need money because your lazy ass people won't go to work and you can type in 'rosebud' for cash", Eggsy added enthusiastically. Harry had no idea what he was talking about.

Harry’s eyebrows rose to his forehead. “Well, If I had known earlier that I simply needed to assign someone to throw nuts at your face to increase your productivity...”

“...I’m sure you would have done it yourself”, Merlin ended his sentence.

“I would have used coconuts”, Harry added innocently. He checked his watch. “Eggsy, I’m afraid we have to get Daisy from the daycare.”

“Alright”, the young man said, swinging his legs of the table. “See you tomorrow, bruv.”

Merlin nodded absentmindedly, all at once totally engrossed in his computer displays.

Harry pushed his hands into his pockets as they walked down the hallway. 

“Did everything go...alright?”, he asks cautiously.

Eggsy nodded, gazing at the floor in front of them. “He called me Bampot a few times and threw his mug at me when I made suggestions about the code he didn’t like. Then his agent signed off the comm, first he was full rage, then he was bored and tried to convince me to be his living target.”

“That’s how your cap ended up pinned to the wall?”, Harry inhaled sharply. “You let him throw his pocketknife at you?”

“He said he was a trained agent”, Eggsy shrugged, “almost shit my pants though.”

“He was a trained agent thirty years ago”, Harry hissed and checked the crown of Eggsy’s head for damage. It was all golden, fluffy, intact hair. 

“Well, he didn’t tell me that”, Eggsy laughed. 

“I gather from that moment on you clicked”, Harry chuckled, keeping himself from ruffling Eggsy’s hair. 

“Yeah, pretty much. I’m excited for tomorrow, I guess.”

Harry smiled to himself. “Brilliant.”


	8. Chapter 8

Surprisingly enough, the new arrangement worked out rather fine. Eggsy and Harry worked out a routine in which they took turns in the morning in making themselves and Daisy ready for the day, prepare breakfast, take Daisy to the daycare, check in at the shop and drive to HQ in the capsule. Sometimes - when Harry was ordered to important meetings in Savile Row - Eggsy would go alone but mostly they would not part until Eggsy had to turn right for Merlin’s office and Harry needed to follow the hallway to the   
left to get to his. 

In the first days Harry checked in regularly, finding both men with messed up hair (or in Merlin’s case the crooked angle of his classes would be the indicator) leaning over their respective tablets and brooding over status reports, blue prints and weapon prototypes. When Merlin had to handle an agent, Eggsy would help other personnel of his department with whatever they needed him to be done. Sometimes Harry came just at the right time to catch a cup of the young man’s freshly brewed coffee. 

One of those days - Harry would be gone for a short mission the next day - he took the boy shopping after work to get him new clothing as he had promised himself over two weeks ago. They went to a shopping centre of Eggsy’s choosing a Harry patiently waited for Eggsy to flutter around the shop, try pairs of trainers, jumpers and jeans on and put them in a cart.

Harry felt misplaced in the sporty shop with his needle pin strip suit and shining Oxfords. 

“You alright, bruv?”, Eggsy asked while secretly gazing at the price labels of each item he picked. Harry wasn’t exactly sure if he really cared (despite he knew that some clothing wouldn’t fuck up with Harry’s bank account) or if he did it out of habit. 

“Yes, perfectly.” Harry eyed some caps that were hanging on display and chose one to show to Eggsy. It was green, neon, and black with a bumblebee on the front.

“You know my style”, Eggsy grinned and pushed the cart towards him so Harry could throw it in. 

“It’s not that hard”, Harry teased him. “Everything flashing and bold.”

“Exaaaaaclty”, Eggsy exclaimed. “And you, what do you dig?”

“What I ‘dig’?”, Harry sighed, looking around the shop. “Bespoke, mostly.”

“That suit bespoke?” Eggsy looked him up and down, slumped halfway over his cart.

“Yes, of course. Everything a Kingsman wears is bespoke.”

“Even his underwear?”

Harry huffed, amused and slightly bewildered. Here he was, buying clothes for a young man and receiving sexual innuendos for it.

“I can’t think of a area more worthy of being protected by bulletproof material”, Harry deadpanned and went off to the parka section of the shop, leaving Eggsy behind with his mouth hanging slightly open.

 

 

As soon as they went home Eggsy went to change into his new clothes while Harry watched Daisy and started dinner. He rocked her on his hips and quietly mumbled into her ear until the spaghetti were finished cooking (which took exactly 15 minutes) and she was fallen asleep against his chest, drooling all over his anyway wrinkled dressing shirt. 

Eggsy came back down, stopped in the door and smiled at them goofily before he carefully pulled her from Harry’s arms and layed her down on the couch to sleep. They set up the dining table, a well-trained routine, and Harry even went to the cellar to get a bottle of red whine. No special occasion, he just felt like it. 

Eggsy was dressed classy, all in black from his socked feet to his black jumper. He still inhaled the noodles like a teenager but Harry enjoyed watching his enthusiasm. 

“So”, he started when Eggsy had finished his food and started the wine, toasting him wordlessly, “how are you settling in with the Tech Department?”

Eggsy swallowed down his wine and suppressed a burp. “It’s aces, oh god, the best job I had in years. I have no idea what I’m there for actually, I mean what is my function exactly?, but I sure learn a lot.”

Harry tilted his head to the side. “That’s what you are there for, exactly.” 

Eggsy shot him a shy smile. “I’m probably still more of a burden than a win.”

“I heard differently”, Harry noted, pouring himself a second glass.

“Yeah?”

“Merlin told me he highly appreciates your way of thinking.”

“He does?” Eggsy basically gleamed under the praise, his eyes definitely shining a bit brighter if that was even possible. 

“Yes”, Harry chuckled. “You have potential as a handler. Now don’t act as if I hadn’t told you that before.”

“Did you?”, Eggsy laughed, embarrassed and simultaneously honored by the evaluation. He became quiet again, eventually, mustering Harry with interest. “Thanks for the clothes by the way.”

“Don’t mention it.” Harry gifted Eggsy with a small, private smile of the sorts he reserved for only a few people in his life. A side-glance followed by a slow blink and a twitching mouth.

“I have to, they look hella fine on me!”

“They do”, Harry inclined his head and let his eyes run over Eggsy’s shoulders and the well-fitting material. Again his mind crossed the thoughts of the boy in a suit, bulletproof and bespoke and what not, plus a gun, issued glasses. Well, handler’s did have the glasses at least.

And they do have a longer life expectancy, he reminded himself and banned all thoughts of Eggsy as a field agent from his mind. Maybe without Daisy on his back Eggsy could manage that, he probably could pass the training while still caring for her, but afterwards...Harry’s job was not family-friendly.

So working with handlers and eventually becoming one seemed like the better deal.

Harry listened to Eggsy for another few minutes before he excused himself for bed and promised to do the dishes in the morning.

 

 

The door to his office swung open and Eggsy’s came rushing in before Harry had the chance to say a word. 

“Haaaaz”, Eggsy murmured, looking down at what was probably a tablet nicked from Merlin. 

“You should knock”, Harry sighed and opened the drawer to reach for his remote. Once he had pressed its only button the door closed itself again gently, only clicking when it locked. The sound was enough for Eggsy, who was deeply immersed in the contents of the tablet, to jump and whisper a horrified “what the fuck”.

Harry held up the remote. “Merlin’s last christmas gift.”

“That’s awesome”, Eggsy noted, perplex at the installation. “No wonder you gained five pounds since then.”

“Did Merlin tell you that?”, Harry growled. “It’s a blatant lie.”

“He’s happy about that actually. He mostly sounds worried about you. That, or he calls you a blue-balled bastard”, Eggsy answered dryly.

Harry huffed. “You are not just here to ‘dis’ me, are you?”, he asked.

Eggsy shook his head, his forehead turning into a deep frown, and gave the tablet to Harry. 

“I used Kingsman resources to do a pedigree analysis based on file data and my DNA and found this.”

“I can’t approve of this and you know it”, Harry scolded but reached for the tablet anyways. He adjusted his glasses and took a look at the diagram, showing the different roots and branches of Eggsy’s family tree. “For what am I looking exactly?”

“You know that my whole family is dead or estranged or kicked me out of my home, right?”

“I am aware”, Harry hissed.

“Well”, Eggsy said and pointed his finger at a name next to his mother’s. “I do have a aunt which fits none of said categories.”

Harry looked up and met Eggsy’s eyes. They were clear blue and hopeful, although...doubting.

“Apparently she lives in Wales”, Eggsy said, “I’ve got her phone number from NHS records.” He exhaled slowly. “Can you stay with me while I call her?”

Harry took his protege in, the firm set jaw that - he knew - was the only thing that kept Eggsy from shivering in anticipation. The boy had unlearned to be hopeful in his life prior to meeting him, too often had he been disappointed by fate or by seemingly reliable people. 

Harry raised from his chair and his hand automatically over the front of his suit. “Of course”, he said softly as to comfort the boy and guided them both to sit on the visitor’s chairs in front of his desk. They sat down, knees almost touching, as Eggsy got out his phone and dialed the number he had taken from his aunt’s medical records. 

Harry sat back and watched him with a strange feeling in his gut. Assuming that this woman and Eggsy’s mother had grown up together, how would Eggsy not know about her? 

His paranoia whispered to him that this could as well be a hoax. A ploy by some megalomaniac going for Eggsy to come for him, using the boy and his sister as Harry’s pressure point. Eggsy had used Kingsman tech, though, which in all of Harry’s years in service had proved as reliable, especially since Merlin had overtaken the department. 

Eggsy bit his lips as he waited for the dialing sounds to end and the skin soon oozed blood. As to comfort him, Harry put his warm hand on Eggsy’s knee and pushed his thumb into the muscle gently. He smiled, politely, reaffirmingly. 

The boy flinched when the call was accepted. 

“Hello?”, Eggsy asked, coughing when he realized how nervous his voice sounded. Then, steadier this time, he added: “Is this Andrea Roberts speaking?”

When the answer was positive Eggsy nodded excitedly at Harry, exhaling deeply. Harry kept his calm while the boy proceeded with introducing himself and had to wait for a few seconds until the gasping at the other end of the line ended.

The conversation wasn’t long and Harry gathered as much as that Eggsy suggested meeting his aunt this week (for the first time in his life apparently) and that she was equally surprised by his existence in which case it was unclear whether Michelle had kept her little family a secret or whether the women hadn’t had contact for over twenty years. 

Harry hoped for the latter.

“Yes, yes this is my mobile number”, Eggsy answered into the phone and let his gaze fall down his legs to his knee where Harry’s hand was still resting. He pursed his lips while listening to his aunt speak and smile softly, he chuckled, and then put his own hand on top of Harry’s, curling his fingers around the older man’s. 

“Yeah, see you Friday”, Eggsy sighed somewhere between happy and nervous. “Bye.”

He ended the call and stared at his phone for several seconds before his gaze wandered up to Harry’s awaiting eyes. 

“She is your real aunt, I conclude”, Harry commented. 

Eggsy let out a shivering breath and averted his eyes for a moment. “Jeezus, we’re not alone”, he whispered. His was near to tears when he turned back to Harry, a smile plastered across his face. “I thought we had nobody left.”

Harry swallowed, squeezing Eggsy’s hand gently. “Eggsy...”, he tried, feeling a sudden tightness in his chest.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, you were there for us”, Eggsy apologized and squeezed back. 

“I am still, and will be”, Harry added carefully and found himself - not even a second later - with an armful of Eggsy who was trying to fit them both in one chair. 

“Sorry”, Eggsy murmured against the crook of his neck. “And thank you. Thank you so much.”

Harry threw his arms around the boy and held him tightly. It felt more right and rewarding than anything he had done the last couple of months. It felt right wanting to protect the boy, holding him so his pieces would stay together, pressing him against his chest so his own skin would not crack. 

“I can understand if you’d rather live with your relative”, Harry murmured back, breathing in the young man’s scent and feeling the material of their trousers, their muscle-formed thighs press together. He felt more than a bit pathetic that this was the first thought coming to his mind: Eggsy leaving him to live with his Aunt. It was logical, wasn't it? Although staying unspoken living with Harry had been a makeshift, no long-term-commitment. 

Eggsy lumped in his arms a bit as he chuckled and strengthened his grip around Harry’s neck. “I’m going to check her out first, mate. See if she’s decent and....you know, proper. Besides: no more waking in the middle of the night because of Daisy, no more stinky nappies.”

Harry snorted. “As if I care. I fear I’ve become rather accustomed to our living situation.”

Eggsy shifted a bit to observe Harry’s face as to search for the non-existent lie. Finally, he smiled. “You know, home is where the Hart is.”

“Oh fuck off.”


	9. Chapter 9

Eggsy got out of the Kingsman cab and breathed in the chilly night air that felt so much clearer without the sound of cars in the streets and people running around on the pavement. The small house at the end of the street was lit by dim light in the ground floor; the standard lamp in the living room and the small light in the kitchen Harry always kept on in case he wanted to make another cup of tea. 

Harry was in the house now, having collected Daisy from the nursery hours before. He put her asleep, too, probably, or was in the progress of getting her ready to do so. Eggsy had to smile at the idea of having someone to help him with this load, the weight of caring for a small human additionally to caring for himself on his shoulders. 

He pulled his grey overcoat tighter and took a deep breath. He wasn’t quite ready to go inside yet, so he pulled out a packet of cigarettes - knowing that Daisy would hate him for his smell later (put it was highly unlikely that she was still up) - and lit himself one. 

He kinda wanted to kiss Harry’s Oxfords for introducing him to Merlin and giving him the opportunity to be the magician’s weird apprentice. It was weirder than any job he had done before, and a lot more awesome and more testing than he liked to admit.

Merlin was a genius concerning anything to do with communication devices, battle plans, algorithms and the ‘handling’ of agents. No two days were the same, at least the rule had applied for the last month he had been part of the department. Eggsy loved the bickering, loved how Merlin’s and Harry’s moods changed inversely proportional every time they had contact, loved how Merlin still was only slowly figuring out what to do with him and hence let him take a look into everything he was working on from blue prints to new weapon prototypes. 

Also recently Harry had started thieving him from Merlin in the middle of the day - not for more than an hour, though - to train him in self-defense and some sick martial arts moves of which legality Eggsy wasn’t so sure about. They would go practice in the gym downstairs, fist-fighting, wrestling, throwing each other onto the mat until both on them slid down the wall, sweaty and short with breath. 

Harry looked...simply exquisite with his hair undone and uni shirt soaked so it clung to his chest. There was a fiery expression in his face every time he send Eggsy down the way to the mat - and expression that reminded Eggsy sometimes that this man did in fast hunt, hurt and kill people for a living. But so had Eggsy’s father. There was more than enough softness, gentle pride in his eyes when he pulled Eggsy up again to make up for whatever fright he momentarily gave Eggsy. If he was ever harmed again, it would not be from Harry’s hand.

The thought - in addition to the cozy looking house - made Eggsy’s chest well up. Before he had this home, ‘home’ didn’t ultimately mean safety, more likely the opposite. Getting out in the streets and dealing with all sorts of strange people had given him more comfort than he had had in his own room with Dean next door. He had slept in a tunnel a few times to avoid going back to the flat, he couldn’t recall how often he’d crashed on Jamal or Ryan’s couch.

A silhouette appeared in the living room window, a lean tall man with edgy glasses and a over sized book in his hands that could only belong to Daisy. He put it down in favor of cleaning his glasses and turning his head so he could throw a look out into the street. 

Eggsy waved with the hand holding his cigarette, not sure if Harry could see him with all the blinding light, but slowly, almost hesitatingly, Harry waved back and sat down in one of the armchairs and with that disappearing from the window, probably picking up a book of his own.

The reason Harry was already home and he was not was on its way back to Wales right know, probably having as much of a time thinking about their meeting as Eggsy had. Andrea was nice, Eggsy decided. Friendly, a mother of two sons who were slightly older than Eggsy and middle-classed, which comforted Eggsy more than he was able to admit to himself. She could understand what he told her about him and Daisy getting kicked out of Deans flat and having nowhere to go, how Eggsy’s mother got to hang onto Dean in the first place. 

When Andrea had asked where they were staying now Eggsy had answered ‘at a friend of his father’s’, which was basically correct but quite wrong all the same. Harry was his friend, his old, rich, very manly manly benefactor at the time, so to say. Eggsy hadn’t been ashamed, but he also hadn’t been quite sure how to transport the message without triggering false impressions. So instead of letting her investigating further, he had asked about her life, where she lived, if she was married, and finally why he had never met her before.

Andrea and Eggsy’s mother - so it turned out - had been in sporadic contact for almost 20 years. Two sisters estranged by marriage and living in different parts of the country and lives of their own, to Eggsy it sounded quite plausible. Andrea did know that Daisy existed. She also knew that Eggsy’s mother had died last year (Eggsy would dread the memory of the long silence after he had said it out loud forever), but she didn’t know that Dean was dead. 

Four hours felt like a rush, equally motivating and exhausting to Eggsy. The woman was still a stranger, but at least she wasn’t a number in an NHS report or a voice on the phone anymore. She was real, she was nice. And Eggsy felt...cautiously hopeful.

He pressed the cigarette butt against the nearest house wall and threw it into the ashtray of one of his neighbors. He unlocked the door to Harry’s house, shed his coat and his scarf and quietly knocked against the door frame of the open living room door. “Hi Harry”, he whispered and smiled as Harry looked up from his magazine and blinked at Eggsy over his glasses.

“Good evening, Mr. Unwin”, Harry answered, sounding almost playfully.

“Ms. Unwin is dreaming of ice cream, I hope”, Eggsy sighed and sat down opposite to Harry. 

Harry closed his magazine and sat a bit more upright, ready to be attentive. “And how was your day?”

Eggsy frowned. “Merlin let me photocopy a document the Queen signed, that was weird. I don’t think anything like that is meant for my...commoner’s eyes.”

Harry observed him for a moment before his lips quirked. He coughed. “I don’t want you to assume wrongly and think he trusts you on such a highly personal level that he would show you such things voluntarily. He knows your pressure point, Eggsy, that’s what makes you a highly valuable valet.”

“And hat would my pressure point be?”

The light-heartedness vanished from Harry’s face for a moment. “If I committed treason, Kingsman would torture me until I die. In your case it is enough to know to which nursery we are sending little Daisy.”

“I think he hinted a warning at me about that sometime ago”, Eggsy remembered and swallowed audibly. He was getting used to the whole secret service business, but some things still gave him goosebumps and he feared it was only the beginning. “Alright, I guess what you were originally asking about was the coffee with Andrea anyways.”

Harry tilted his head slightly, never letting Eggsy from his gaze, but he didn’t answer.

Eggsy took a deep breath. “Andrea is fine, she’s very de-”

“-I put together a file about her criminal records, health status, debt situation, financial traffic and relationship status. Also her Facebook activity and a list of all other social media accounts linked to her e-mail-address”, Harry babbled out in one go and pursed his lips after pulling a file out of nowhere and putting it in front of Eggsy on the coffee table. 

“You should read it”, he further announced in a serious tone, locking eyes with Eggsy. “You thoroughly should.”

Eggsy swallowed again, surprised and amused, too. “What the fuck, Haz.”  
He went for the file and flipped the first page to find CCTV footage of Andrea, her social security number, credit card number, date of birth, weight and address. 

“You should know who you put your trust into”, Harry elaborated quietly. He was reluctant in his choice of words, Eggsy noticed, as if he was unsure if they were the right ones to use or - more probably - if he was the in the position to use them.

“I went home with you after some tear wiping and a hot meal”, Eggsy laughed, not feeling as pathetic as he thought he’d be upon speaking it out loud.

Harry leaned back, raising his chin. “Because I am a respectable gentleman”, he explained, dead-serious. 

Eggsy laughed and Harry’s stiff, tense posture slowly turned into a chuckle, too, all containment over the fact that he truly cared for Eggsy’s and Daisy’s well-being washed away. 

“Thank you”, Eggsy whispered, wiping a tear of laughter from his eye. “It means a lot to me, in a weird spy way.”

Harry looked at him for a few seconds before he turned his gaze towards the coffee table. “I fear that’s the only way I manage to...show that I care.”

“In this very special case maybe”, Eggsy answered light-heartedly. He didn’t miss the momentary tension in Harry’s jaw, though. 

They fell silent for a moment and Eggsy reminded himself of a few minutes ago when he was standing at the end of the street, full of anticipation for coming home after a long day to a softly lit house and a gentle man in the leather armchair. Harry sat in front of him, caressing the sleeve of his right hand with thumb and index finger of his left hand, his woolen cardigan bringing out the honey in his eyes and letting the wrinkles and faint scars in his face almost disappear. 

Eggsy’s tongue uncomfortably stuck to the rood of his mouth and he had to swallow. The next second he was on his feet, moving towards Harry with a speed he didn’t anticipate from himself, launching himself into the older man’s arms. 

He crashed his skull against Harry’s first, because he had to bend down in a inconvenient angle to have their mouths meet, and it was the friction of skin on skin for a moment, the smell of aftershave, stubble on stubble. 

A hand found it’s way to Eggsy’s collar, holding it tightly and stopping the young man from pushing forward. They stayed frozen, taking in the other’s smell and breath. Eggsy’s heart beat loudly, thumping up and down in his chest in terror. He was to bold again, messing things up.

Harry hesitated until he murmured a soft: “No”.

The grip around Eggsy’s collar loosened, giving him more space to breath and be less hot. Eggsy leaned back to dare a cautious look into Harry’s eyes. The older man looked crumpled, still gentle, but expression now tense from restraint. 

Eggsy tilted back, less controlled than he would have liked and thus Harry shifted with him, rose to his feet and held Eggsy by the elbows to steady him. 

“Sorry”, Eggsy muttered, “I’ve...that’s stupid, sorry.” He took another step backwards against the coffee table but Harry held him in place. 

“Don’t run”, he said softly, almost whispered. Harry’s eyes were directed at something between their chest, perhaps at the unspoken but obvious things hanging in the air between them. Eggsy held his breath.

Finally, Harry met Eggsy’s eyes again and sighed. “There are so many reasons why not.”

Eggsy wanted to run, run, run, run. For a moment he did not think of Daisy at all, he just wanted to flee from Harry’s hands, from the house, from the comfort it gave him and the thought that he might have just thrown it all away.

Any words he could think of (and it were only things going along with ‘sorry’ and ‘I messed up’) were stuck in his throat. His breath hitched when Harry leaned forward and pressed a small, delicate kiss to the corner of his mouth, almost politely so.

“And none of them have to do with _you_ ”, Harry said, his voice becoming throaty. For another second he smiled at Eggsy, a sad smile, but still restrained and then let his hands back fall to his sides. 

And then, all at once, Eggsy recognized that look. He knew it from when he had had to let go of something he wanted, a friend from the wrong part of town, a band he liked but he could never possibly listened to at home or with the boys because it would just be _fitting_ for a guy, anything that his circumstances wouldn’t allow him, that would make him the target of vulgarity and spite and possibly hatred.

Who in the world would mind both of them kissing? Both without families, only a few friends and basically only trusting themselves and the other.

He asked the question out loud. _Who would mind?_ Croaky, perhaps desperate.

“I would”, Harry said and closed his eyes for a second. “Go to sleep, we have to get up early tomorrow.” Defeated, tired.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ya, i know, I'm sorry


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a lot and ...yup it's a lot to progress this is a emotional rollercoaster, inclusive action and hurt

The next morning Eggsy leaves the house when Harry is still getting dressed. He takes Daisy to the mall, buying things from the money Harry transferred to his bank account, and contemplates about last night. 

By the time he comes home and drops the shopping on the kitchen aisle, he thinks he can handle this like a grown-up. He feels rejected, although he recognizes that Harry put an effort into making him feel quite the opposite, in a very polite and distanced way. There is no way Eggsy could pout over the fact that Harry doesn’t like him back like this, he is far too grateful for everything else the older man has done so far, but of course, it’s still gnawing on him. But yes, he will be able to behave civilized, as Harry would probably put it.

When Harry steps into the kitchen though and begins ordering the fresh food into the cupboards without a word, Eggsy gets uneasy. 

“You’ve gone out early this morning”, Harry notes, voice gentle. 

“Yeah”, Eggsy huffed and put Daisy on the floor where she would toddle around for a bit. “Needed some fresh air.”

He watched Harry’s muscles move under his pressed white shirt from behind while the agent sorted the shopping. Did Harry’s unreturned feelings add to his attraction? God dammit. 

“Did you read the file?”, Harry asked, business as usual. 

Eggsy was silent for a moment, considering if Harry didn’t comment on their special situation yesterday night because he was embarrassed or because he thought the subject had been discussed enough. It hadn’t been really, just a few words from Harry’s side and a stuttered apology from Eggsy’s. 

“About Andrea? No, not yet.”

Harry nodded and folded the now empty shopping bag to store it in one of the drawers.

“My mind was on something else”, Eggsy hinted with a small sigh. As expected, Harry didn’t go for the implication.

“Well, I will have to leave for a mission tonight and be back on Monday evening”, Harry said nonchalantly. “We can talk about it then, if you’d like.”

Eggsy pursed his lips, adverting his eyes from Harry’s back hurriedly. Why the mission on such short notice? 

“Where are you going?”

“Only Madeira”, Harry turned around with a small smile that seemed pretty much fake. Eggsy suppressed the urge to swallow. He was getting more and more uncomfortable and it was after all his fucking fault. Harry probably asked Merlin intentionally for a mission, to bring some distance between them.

“I thought Bors was going to operate there.”

“He’s still stuck in Munich”, Harry answered shortly, sending him another apologeptic smile. 

“Have fun then”, Eggsy said, faking a smile of his own, and left the kitchen with Daisy crawling after him.

 

Harry was gone for a good few hours now and after he had put Daisy to sleep, had a shower and made himself a cup of tea, Eggsy reclined on his small bed with Andrea Robert’s case file in his hand. He braced himself for a very unsettling evening. 

 

That Merlin gave him a mission while Eggsy was away had been rather fortunate for Harry’s emotional hurricane of feelings and rather shitty in how it must look to Eggsy. But work was work and never asked which time of the day it was or if Harry felt inclined at the moment, so the agent left with the jet and tried to block his thoughts out for a few hours. It didn’t work very well. 

Harry reached Madeira late at night and went to his hotel first, checking in with Merlin and arranging the various weapons he brought with him. He brought a bit much of everything, he guessed, especially the 25 lighters, but at least like this he felt steeled for any unforeseen situations.

Sadly, even 25 lighters wouldn’t have helped him last night. Eggsy making playful advances towards him was nothing knew, flirting hadn’t been at any rate rare at the moment but....kissing him? Well trying to. Harry was still a bit shocked. 

In just one second all his hopes and dreams - which he had so eagerly worked on keeping small and weak - flamed up again. The affection wasn’t one-sided, it was obviously flaming in both of them and Eggsy had been very bold to let him know. Still, Harry just couldn’t do it. He was quite proud of himself that he had been able to make the decision to abort any advanced in this specific moment, too, knowing know that he would have hated himself after a kiss or god forbid the next morning.

He couldn’t take advantage of the boy. Eggsy was strong and clever and had quite a bit life experience, but compared to Harry himself the boy was still naive and green behind the ears. Also Harry didn’t want to feel like this was the payment for food and shelter he had given to the Unwins. Eggsy had never made him feel this way, still somewhere in his fogged conscious it bugged Harry to no end. Receiving devotion for goods? He was a better man like that, he told himself and so he was glad he denied whatever would have happened. 

And still, after making the right decision, Harry felt tremendously bitter as he clacked together the handle and barrel of his hand gun. Being a better man made him less pleased with himself than he would have anticipated, especially when he met Eggsy’s hurt eyes. 

The boy truly deserved better than this, being rejected by the person he trusted the most. 

Harry wasn’t as oblivious as to not see the importance he had in Eggsy’s life and it only added to his uneasyness. What had he thought of himself to collect them both from the street and integrate them into his life? He hadn’t known then that Eggsy was Lee’s son, so why the hell did he think of himself as a person who could emotionally support a family all of the sudden? Why did he let both of them grow on him so much?

Harry put his gun on the nearest table and dropped into a chair, ripping off his glasses to massage his temple, where a burning headache was forming under his fingertips. 

He wasn’t a good man. He had selfishly made two kids live with him, let him take care of them, give him something to do that evoked a feeling of purpose his job long did not anymore. _He_ made them dependent on him, because he _fucking liked it_. 

Why else did he arrange for Eggsy to have a job at Kingsman in the end? Of course, the boy had asked for it but how easy would it have been to just say no? Why didn’t he give Eggsy money to get himself a flat? Why why why.

On days like this, Harry truly and passionately hated himself.

 

Eggsy put the file back on the table and turned the lights in the living room off. He sat in the dark for a bit, watching the cars of the main road drive by the other end of the street. 

Andrea was the average person who hid a few skeletons in the closet. Twenty thousand pounds of debt, an ex-husband in a psychiatric hospital and one police report for carrying Marijuana around London. If Harry thought those were reasons Eggsy wouldn’t want contact with her he was wrong, but it did put a bit of distance between the person he got to know yesterday and the person she probably really was. 

Still, the situation with Andrea was the least confusing at the time. During the day and night, Eggsy thought a lot about Harry. 

He recalled the exact situation that made him want to kiss Harry, right after the agent handed him Andreas file:

_“Thank you, it means a lot to me, in a weird spy way.”_

_“I fear that’s the only way I manage to...show that I care.”_

_“In this very special case maybe.”_

The conversation had been weird because in fact Harry showed that he cared a lot, in all the different ways. When he bought Eggsy’s favourite ice cream for example, or read stories to Daisy until she fell asleep. How he sat beside him the day he found Dean surrounded by flies and worms in his flat, how he sat beside him when they watched sappy rom-coms on the telly. The way he promised Eggsy to be there for him still, whatever his aunt turned out to be. 

Besides his mum there had been no other person in his life that so thoroughly cared for him like Harry did, that’s why it seemed so wrong for Harry to say something like that. Eggsy put it to Harry’s warped consciousness of himself or insecurity regarding his emotions. How could Harry think he never showed he cared when everything he did was so full of....

 _Love_ was the first word Eggsy’s mind supplied. Kindness, commitment, respectfulness. 

But apparently, Harry didn’t want him. Not like that. 

_“There are so many reasons why not, and none of them have to do with you.”_

_“Who would mind?”_

_“I would.”_

Eggsy swallowed and pulled out his phone, opening the chat for a new text to Harry, who was on fucking Madeira doing his spy work when he was supposed to sit with Eggsy and talk this out. Eggsy slowly developed empathy for the older man, even if he wasn’t sure what motives led Harry to say what he said. He had the feeling that Harry hadn’t exactly been happy or sure about rejecting him, Eggsy remembered the trembling of his hand around his wrist, his defeated look, his inner struggle. 

Like he kept himself from giving in to Eggsy, like he held onto superior reasons.

Eggsy’s fingers typed a short message for Harry before he went to bed. 

_Be safe_

 

Being this badly informed reminded Harry of his time as a young agent, when it hadn’t been usual to give the field agents as much intel as it was now. They had been mere machines, executing order’s from their superiors. It had taken a few deaths in the field before the custom changed and agents were actively involved in the solving of the one or other case, in planning and making strategies. 

With this special crime network he and Merlin (and ultimately also Eggsy) had been investigating it was much the same like 30 years ago. They had used the pass code taken from the piece of skin and exploited all the chat rooms data and thereby eliminated almost every business partner and money launderer working for Narcos (mostly on small side operations). Whoever it was that hid behind the name, they were running dry on money and apparently grew more desperate to acquire new sources of the same - this weekend they tried it in Funchal, Madeira, judging by the geo data of the latest entries IP address. 

Merlin’s team had traced the IP so far as to end up with a name and a address, a prospering young married couple with a mansion in the south of the city. A quick breach into their security system had been enough to find out the date and guest list of a dinner party and sort the attendants into their respective categories (petty crime, major crime and government official) until a handful filtered out of whom Kingsman had nothing in their database.

Harry put on his best combat-suit, a blue velvet dinner jacket - bullet proof of course with two knives hidden in the lapels - paired with a pair of black trousers and Oxfords. He checked his fake invitations again, catching himself to be a bit...not nervous but tense, perhaps. His head was still spinning around the situation at home, a thing that rarely happened to him on missions because, well, he never had situations at home before.

“Your cab is waiting”, Merlin informed him through the comm. “Please activate video transmission now.” 

Harry did as he was asked and checked his holster again, his pockets where he had managed to hide six of the lighters and adjusted the flat smoke bomb attached to the inside of his right thigh. 

It was a twenty-minute drive their on which he let Merlin tell him again about the blue prints of the building and how many security guards were employed for the evening, that the security system hadn’t been updated for a week now. Harry did not really care, he just listened, trusting himself enough from 30 years of experience that he would master this evening. Find out whoever Narcos was, gather intel, eliminate them if possible.

The cab stopped on the main road in front of the manors gate where quite a few upper class Portuguese people were standing, chatting and smoking, clearly waiting in queue to have their identities checked and be let onto the estate grounds.

Harry stopped, staying away from the crowd for another moment, staring at the couples, arm in arms and hands wrapped around trim waists.

“Galahad, is everything all right?”, Merlin asked, sounding worried and annoyed.

Harry pursed his lips and got his mobile from his pocket to press it against his ear while he responded as to not attract attention for speaking with the thin air around him.

“He tried to kiss me, Merlin.” Harry held his breath, waiting for his friends reaction.

“Better be it, he’s been making puppy eyes at you since the first week”, Merlin answered curtly.

“Seriously”, Harry scolded, “I can’t take this as lightly as you!”

Merlin paused, is keyboard clattering in the background. Finally: “Harry, for how long have you been a spy?”

“30 years”, Harry answered, although the words left a bitter taste in his mouth.

“When was the first time you thought ‘well, I might have died today’?”

“Somewhere half a year into being a field agent”, Harry answered, frowning deeply, ”what’s the point?”

“You know how seaman used to occupy the nearest brothel after a storm that they thought could have killed them?”, Merlin noted.

“Are you suggesting or me to visit a brothel every time I finish a mission?”

“The medical ward would make me responsible for all the STD-tests, so: no.”, Merlin sighed, the sound of his keyboard receding. “What I’m saying is, give yourself a chance to be happy, goddamnit. You and Eggsy are not in the story-book perfect position to start...anything, but that doesn’t mean you have to give it up. Stop being so fucking miserable about this, you brat. Change it.”

“I am not miserable”, Harry denied. “I am concerned, for Eggsy.”

“Ya, cut the bullshit. You should be glad someone likes your sorry arse as much as he does. You’re breaking your head over superficial stuff because you think you don’t deserve him.” 

“Maybe I do”, Harry considered sheepishly. 

“Nah, you don’t - but that never stopped you before from being an asshat and going in for what you want. For fuck’s sake, I can’t believe I have to tell you all this.”

Harry swallowed and squeezed the phone in his hand, feeling that there was at least some truth in Merlin’s words.

“And maybe go to a brothel to fuck your head free before you speak to him.”

Harry scrunched his nose. “That’s highly distasteful, Merlin.”

“Well, then go shoot some evil lunatics to get it out of your system. I don’t care, just stop thinking for now and concentrate on the mission”, Merlin huffed somewhat illogically but Harry wasn’t going to complain about his friend giving him his once-in-a-year-advise.

“All right”, Harry answered, putting his phone away and patting his pockets to feel the secure weight of the lighters. 

“Get yourself identified and enter the grounds”, Merlin ordered.

“Understood.”

 

Harry felt his head was about to split when he woke up. He felt cold, obviously from lying on a floor of cement. Carefully he blinked at his surroundings, finding himself in a dark room, the walls reflected the sound of his own breathing. 

Harry checked his body for injuries and found his ribs aching badly and his trouser leg torn with a slight hint of blood, but no pain. His holsters were empty, his jackets and the gadgets hidden in it were missing entirely, his watch and his glasses had been taken, too. Which left him with his smoke bomb and his....well, he looked at his bare feet with a grim face. 

His neck hurt, too, probably where someone had injected a drug when he went to the less frequently visited areas of the manor. He barely remembered Merlin warning him about close proximity contact over the comm, obviously too late for him to react. 

He heard steps outside of the room, probably on a hallway, and mere seconds later the door opened to two heavily armed men followed by a short-haired women Harry’s age in the hallways bright light. She was small and dressed to the nines in a bespoke suit which didn’t quite hid the bulge her revolver created in the holsters on her back. Trained then, or paranoid. 

“Who are you?”, Harry spat out mockingly starting to raise himself from the floor only to be kicked hin the shin by one of the goons. He fell down to his knees, groaning more loudly than he would have liked. 

“You seem less informed than you would have liked me to think”, the woman said with a smooth voice Harry knew came from gurgling a lot of alcohol down that petite throat. 

“Is that so?”

“Obviously. But I’m wasting my own time here”, she said, gazing at the wall for a moment. “I’m what you know to be Narcos.”

Harry said nothing, just stared her dead in the eye. 

She nodded. “Big surprise, well, your little organization has bugged me for some time now. It’s hard to do business when my business partners get eliminated every few weeks, so”, she looked at him and smiled brightly, “I’m very glad to meet you and tell you personally.”

Harry sighed and smacked his lips in a fake manner of security. “Well if that’s all, I’m sure we will find a way to work around that.” He even moved to raise again, but lowered down when one of the goons stepped forward to hit him again.

“Mr. Hart”, she tsk’d and shook her head slightly. “I’m not sure you will deliver the message properly, to be honest.”

Harry felt his muscles tense in an instant. A fight then. On the floor, unarmed and unprotected. 

“So I will deliver it myself”, she announced and pulled Harry’s glasses from her pocket, unfolded them and put them on her own face. “They are not activated yet while I brief you. You will say words along the way of ‘I, the failed agent Galahad, will die during the next five minutes if Kingsman doesn’t stop pursuing every case regarding Narcos and her Associates immediately and deletes every file concerning her business evidently.’ My people will check, be sure of that”, she smiled and raised a brown. “Are you able to do that?”

Harry balled his hands to fists, on of his fingers catching the rip in the fabric that was stretching over his right knee. “Why would I do that at all?”

She raised both broths. “To feel humiliated, obviously.”

Harry snorted. “There are far worse things.”

“We will be coming to that when your friends don’t cooperate like I want them too”, Narcos promised, a devilish glint in her eyes. 

Harry shook his head, smiling. What fucking class of criminal had he put up with? Just because she captured him in a weak moment didn’t mean he was under her will. Oh my. Harry smiled broader, shaking his head.

“You don’t understand”, he said, sounding annoyed as if he was talking to a small child. She was underestimating what pain he’d endure for the sake of Kingsman, for the sake of his own dignity. “ _Why_ would I do that?”

Narcos looked at him like a snake, her head moving on her neck like she considered the way she would rip his heart out the next moment and she did.

“Because my people are outside your house, waiting in the dark for my signal to storm the house and kill your boy and his sister or worse.” 

She smiled as she saw the colour fade from his face, the spasm going through his face as his heart stopped for a second only to rumble to his chest painfully and hectically when the realization hit him.

“You don’t know anything”, he answered, hands hurting from balling them so hard. He stared at Narcos and for a moment considered if it was worth taking five bullet to the chest and head to scratch her eyes out. 

“They are sleeping in the guest room, don’t they? The door is always slightly ajar, the coffee machine is broken, the post always come between 10 and 12 in the morning.” She tilted her head and looked at him with interest. 

Harry asked himself how much of what was going on in him she could see right now, because not even he could. His blood was burning with the need to crush something and at the same time he was - for the first time on the job - on the brink of breaking into a sobbing lump on the floor. She was right, about everything. He felt every leverage he had vanish in an instant, even his dignity. The situation seemed inescapable and he felt more powerless than ever before.

He took a deep breath and harrumphed quietly, averting his eyes to get himself under control. He took ten seconds and looked back up to her, stern and fierce and feeling a defiance that instantly reminded him of Eggsy. 

“Start, then”, he spit at her, using all his energy to hold himself together. 

She smiled and raised a hand to push at the side of the glasses to activate the transmission.

Harry could see himself as Merlin would see him, messy and utterly psychologically ruined on the floor. He would have to figure something out to tell him, and make them rush to Eggsy and Daisy immediately. 

Stuttering, so every emphasized word together would make the phrase?  
Morsing with his eyelids?  
God help Merlin wouldn’t get the clue. 

They would probably kill him if he warned Merlin by word. If he just told him: “get every agent to Eggsy ASAP trust me” or something the like. But on the other side, would he care? To die now? 

A little. And well, he still had the...his finger dove deeper into the rip of his trousers.

It seamed the easiest, most effective way, so when Narcos started the transmission, he blurted it right out. “Merlin, all agents Standhope Mews, now” all the while he ripped open what was left of his trousers and activated the smoke bomb pinned to his legs. The ejection of smoke pushed him back against the wall with the first wave and he lowered to the floor as the first shots were fired into the bricks above his head. They subsides as he jumped up and pulled his shirt up to breath through the fabric and navigate through the thick smoke. The goons were coughing, still holding to their guns. Harry knocked one down from behind and used him as a shield when the other fired into his direction. Harry took the gun from the dead man’s hands and shot back, killing the second guy instantly. When the numbing sound subsided he stood still and listened for the sounds of clattering feet on the hallway. 

A second later he was in the hallway, feeling fortunate that he was holding an automatic and she was armed with two revolvers. The smoke was clearer here, but still only enough to make out blurry outlines of the woman. He just fired, taking about two seconds to hit her in the back and make her fall to the floor with a loud thump. 

She was bleeding out of her gut when he came nearer, her hand cupping something under her chest. He rolled her around and took the black device, a smart phone, the screen unlocked and a message just send. _Go_ , it said. Harry swallowed and took the glasses from her face. 

“Merlin, she has men on Eggsy, mobilize as fast as you can”, he said lowly, his voice choked from smoke and fear. He looked down at the phone once again, then back at the dying woman to share with Merlin. 

“Everyone is on their way”, Merlin said, sounding distant and barely there. Harry nodded, raising from his quat and pointing his gun at the woman. 

“Fuck you”, he murmured and shot her in both feet. She didn’t even scream, just bolted in pain, blood all over her body. 

Harry heard steps coming down the hall and ran away from them, towards what he hoped was an exit. 

 

Eggsy woke up by a loud thump downstairs and sat up in his bead immediately. Harry? So loud and late in the night?

He heard whispers, orders, steps of heavy men in the living room right under him. 

_Oh no_ , he thought and grabbed Daisy from her crib. She was too startled to cry right away, which gave him the time to leave his room and flee into Harry’s which he knew could be locked from inside. He did so, put Daisy on the floor behind the bed and first went to the wardrobe. 

He was strangely calm, right until he heard the creaking of the stairwell and his heart began racing so fast he thought he’d die. _We’re about to die_ , he thought, pulling out two of the hangers with Harry’s jackets on them and ripped them off the wood. He was back by Daisy, wrapping the bulletproof fabric around her entirely, whereupon she started to cry miserably.

Eggsy heard muffled voices, a men pointing out to another that he heard something. The boy put on jacket on himself and leaned over the bed to hit the headboard hard enough for a trapdoor to open an reveal a shot gun to him. He pulled it out although he had no idea how to handle it and crawled back next to Daisy, to press her against his body. 

“Shuuu, my darling”, he murmured, voice choked and full of fear. Somebody tried to push the handle down, the next moment they started banging against the door. Before they were able to break it open, Eggsy had already loaded and cocked the gun. 

They ran right into him, two men in black amour with big machine pistols in their hand. Eggsy didn’t wait for them to see him, he just shot. Loaded, shot again while bullets hit the wall behind him. 

There were more voices downstairs, alarmed, more heavy steps rummaging through the house. Eggsy grabbed Daisy and ran into the hallway where bullets where already hitting him in the shoulder as he turned to flee inside Harry’s office. With both hands full he somehow managed to open the door and make it to the balcony. They were coming after him, so he shot again, the recoil of the gun hit Daisy hard as she was pressed to his chest. 

Another man collapsed on the floor, a second cried in pain. Eggsy dropped his weapon and swung himself over the balcony, landing on his feet heavily. His ankle made a weird sound but pumped by adrenaline Eggsy didn’t waste a moment to run as fast as he could. Shot fired, hitting the ground next to him. The had come about fifteen meters when two black sport cars turned into the street at a hellish speed. 

Eggsy’s heart stopped. He was trapped. 

He barely managed to jump out of the cars’ way before they braked and came to stop in front of the building. To his surprise the man in black started to fire on the cars, ignoring him entirely for a moment. So this weren’t their back-up?

The sunroof of the car nearer to Eggsy opened up and a machine gun the size of a calve raised from the vehicle, immediately starting to shoot at the men on the balcony. They took cover and the passenger sides door swung open. Percival, a knight Eggsy had known from working with Merlin, waved at him urgently from the drivers seat and the boy hurried to climb into the car. 

“Are you alright?”, Percival asked, putting a hand on Eggsy’s shoulder for comfort.

Eggsy couldn’t say anything, so he just started to cry and unfolded his arms around his baby sister, desperately hoping that she was okay. “Shit shit shit”, he sobbed and revealed her head under the fold of fabric. She cried and lifted her red face. There was a blue bruise forming at her temple, but Eggsy had never been so relieved. 

“It’s a good sign when they are crying, isn’t it?”, Percival asked, looking at Eggsy hopefully. Eggsy commenced to cry. 

“What the fuck is happening?”, he sobbed, his body shaking wildly.

Percival took a breath and held still, searching for the right words. “In the car next to us two agents are sitting, Tristan and Roxy, who is not yet an agent but soon will be. The second I run out of ammo they will go in and eliminate the rest of the intruders”, he explained calmly. The sound coming from over their head subsided as he spoke and the car doors of the other car swung open, revealing two suited Kingsmen who went to storm the house. Shots were heard from within, screaming. Percival pressed a button on his dashboard and tuned on the radio from which they could hear both agents speak. 

“Kitchen is clear”, Tristan murmured, “Living room, too.”

“Bath is...oy, what the hell, but clear”, Roxy noted.

“Commencing to second floor”, Tristand answered. “Two dead in the master bedroom, one dead in the office, two dead on the bal-” They heard another round of shots and looked up to the balcony through the windscreen of the car. The could make out Tristan’s silhouette, pointing his weapon at the ground. “Correcting, four dead on the balcony.”

“Makes twelve in sum”, another voice said from the radio which Eggsy identified as Merlin’s. “Report in HQ ASAP. How badly is are the two hurt?”

Percival looked at the shaking Eggsy and the bundle in his arms. “How long for the heli?”

“5 minutes”, Merlin answered.

“Better make it 2”, Percival said. 

 

Two hours later Eggsy was sitting on a hospital bed in HQ, his ankle bandages and his bruises hurting everywhere on his body. He had waited for the paediatrician to examine Daisy for an hour, an be there to comfort her of course, until the doctor decided it was best to put her to sleep for a few hours because she had no major injuries that needed attention. 

Eggsy let her on the station where a nurse was watching over her every minute and went back to his own room to have himself examined. After the doctor had bandaged him up and left and he sat alone for a few minutes he vomited. Then he sat up again, staring blankly at the wall across from him. 

His eyes were burning from dehydration, his shoulder ached from the recoil of the shot gun. Everything hurt, really, especially his head. He wasn’t sure of he was ever going to comprehend what had happened, or if he long had. He remembered the calm as he had moved to Harry’s room, he remembered his fear for Daisy, he remembered crying in Percival’s car out of relieve and irritation. 

Eggsy changed into fresh clothes, drank a liter of water and ate a sandwich to calm his stomach, then washed the salt from his face. Merlin was in his room when he came back from the loo, looking so sorry and worried Eggsy almost pitied him. 

Merlin pulled him into a hug, wordlessly, checking afterwards for tears on Eggsy’s face and found none. He looked relieved. 

“I will explain to you what has happened”, he said, pointing for Eggsy to sit down. Merlin dropped into the visitor’s chair, tablet in his hand. He looked tired, old, overworked, just like Eggsy felt.

“At 2:45 am we received a call from Harry, or rather from his captor. He was meant to send us a mission specific message, Harry though used the time to warn us about an invasion at his house, where you and your sister were staying at the moment.”

“Do you need to talk like that?”, Eggsy asked, frankly. “To distance yourself, or what?”

Merlin looked at him, concerning his slumped frame and tired eyes. He sighed. “Probably. What I was saying: Harry’s captor used you as leverage to get to Harry and make him deliver a message to us. He overwhelmed them shortly after disobeying their orders, but they still managed to give the order to invade your home.”

“So they threatened Harry to kill us?”, Eggsy asked.

“Yes”, Merlin shrugged. “But he risked his life to warn us and keep th-”

Eggsy swallowed, feeling the lump that was forming itself in his throat. “Is he...alive?”

“Yes, he’s escaped them. But back to explaining: he warned us and tried to keep his captors from informing their partners in London. He failed, unfortunately.”

“But they wouldn’t have ordered to kill us if he had just obliged?”, Eggsy asked weakly.

Merlin leaned forwards, looking Eggsy dead in the eye. “Even if he had, they still would have”, he said sternly, “they always do.”

Eggsy let himself doubt for a second. Merlin was Harry’s best friend, so of course he would defend him, but...

“He would have died to warn us, Eggsy, don’t you dare doubt him for a second”, Merlin hissed, reaching forward to take Eggsy’s hand. 

Eggsy swallowed and nodded. 

Merlin leaned back again into the chair. “Your sister is fine, soundly sleeping. We will see in the morning how much she remembers and how bad the bruises are. The doctor says your ankle will heal soon, no lasting damage.”

Eggsy nodded again, taking a deep breath. 

Merlin pursed his lips. “Two more things”, he said, “before I leave you to rest. The first...I know this is still somewhat sensitive but you seem to handle it good. Tristan and Roxanne found four of the men dead already and you and your sister sustained relatively sparse damage, so...you did a good job there. Marvellous, to be honest. Equal to most field agents here at Kingsman.”

“I’m good at violence”, Eggsy smirked sarcastically, feeling to tired to talk about this. 

“I see”, Merlin nodded, “maybe we can talk about it another time.”

“Are you going after them? The gunmen I mean”, Eggsy asked.

“Of course, we will work on destroying their network and disabling them to do any harm.”

Eggsy nodded. “What’s the second thing?”

“Harry took the Kingsman jet after he escaped and arrived 32 minutes ago. I kept him away from you because you need to rest and I wanted you to have to decide who to see tonight, or to see anyone at all. Except me of course”, Merlin said, raising from his seat. “I had him have medical examination before, but he is very restless, dying to see you both. If you don’t want to, though, I think he will understand.”

Eggsy contemplated his own body for a bit. He felt worn and tired and slightly traumatized, but since trauma wasn’t a feeling he guessed he was just feeling in shock. And he felt a bit alone, a bit ripped out of his world. Eggsy felt calm, and hurt. 

 

“You can tell him he can come”, Eggsy answered, looking up to Merlin with a weak smile. 

Merlin nodded. “Understood.”

 

Five minutes later it knocked on the door and Eggsy wasn’t sure what to expect. He didn’t feel very much at the moment.

“Come in”, he said loudly enough and straightened his shoulders a bit from where he sat on the edge of his hospital bed.

Harry opened the door and let himself in, closing it softly behind him. His expression was full of guilt and concern that formed a few knew lines on his forehead and between his brows. Eggsy’s eyes wandered down to where Harry’s trousers where bulking over a bandaged shin, then up again to the tension in Harry’s shoulders and the bruise on his jaw.

Harry looked at him with whiskey brown eyes and he looked so sorry. Eggsy swallowed, looking at the softness of him, suddenly by the overwhelmed want to feel his warmth. 

“Hi”, Eggsy said, somewhat choke up and taking a deep breath and was barely able to open his arms before Harry closed the distance between them and put his arms around Eggsy. 

“My darling boy”, he muttered into Eggsy’s ear. Eggsy hid his face in the crook of Harry’s neck until the warm wetness he felt made him realize he was crying again. Harry retreated from the embrace to give Eggsy space to breath and look at him in all concern. 

“Are you alright? I was staying with Daisy the whole time they didn’t let me to you, she seemed alright”, Harry said, pain in his expression.

“You fucker”, Eggsy cursed, desperately loosing any fight against his sobs. He balled a fit and hit it against Harry’s chest, the older an flinched. “You told me it was safe! I asked you if we were safe and you said yes!” Eggsy sobbed and screamed. “It fucking wasn’t. We almost got killed.” He hit Harry another time, far weaker this time, just to make a point, and averted his eyes. He stared to the wall blankly, not knowing what to do, waiting for an reaction, waiting for....

A wet sound woke him from his state of mind and he looked back at Harry to see the older man shaking, tears running from his eyes to fast for him to wipe them all away with his hands. Seeing him cry was strange, was so unnatural for his graceful moves and words. 

“I’m so sorry”, Harry said, sobbed, breathed. “I’m sorry.”

Eggsy closed his eyes. He didn’t feel like he could deal with that know, with having to comfort Harry although he wasn’t able to calm himself thoroughly. He couldn’t deal with his compassion for Harry right now, it was too much. 

And miraculously, Harry seemed to sense that. Eggsy was on the brink of sending him away again, regardless if it was right or wrong of him, but Harry took a step back and calmed himself down. He stopped shaking, only a slight tremor in his hands, and wiped his face with the sleeve of his jumper. 

“I’m glad you are alright”, Harry said, sounding almost neutrally again. “I’m very glad.”

“I’m too”, Eggsy answered. “I’m glad you are not dead.”

Harry looked at him for a moment and then smiled dryly, finding humour in Eggsy’s choice of words. He snuffled again and moved to sit in the visitor’s chair but Eggsy repositioned himself to make some space on the bed and Harry followed his invitation.

They sat next to each other, staring at the wall. 

“I know this is the wrong time”, Harry said lowly, looking down at his hands. “But I regret yesterd-”

“Wrong time, yeah”, Eggsy said, still having to smile weakly at how dorky Harry sounded. “Tomorrow.”

“You know what I mean”, Harry murmured and kissed the crown of Eggsy’s head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> god i hope there are not so many mistakes. I will open any open questions in the next chapter/epilogue


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey people of the world  
> there is going to be more fairly soon, stay updated.  
> thanks for all the correspondence - I appreciate it but I don't have much free time at my hands so I thought adding another chapter might be everyone's priority in this case.  
> thanks,   
> me

Hey people of the world  
there is going to be more fairly soon, stay updated.  
thanks for all the correspondence - I appreciate it but I don't have much free time at my hands so I thought adding another chapter might be everyone's priority in this case.  
thanks,   
me


End file.
